BU Research Blog

The BU PIER (Public Involvement in Education and Research) partnership welcomes Dr Chloe Casey (Lecturer in Nutrition), Dr Linda Agyemang (Lecturer in Adult Nursing) and Dr Aisling Flynn (Lecturer in Occupational Therapy) to the team as PIER Research Champions. Chloe, Linda and Aisling will be supporting the core PIER team, working closely with Professor Mel Hughes (Academic Lead) and Dr Kate Jupp (PIER officer) in our remit to develop meaningful and impactful public and community involvement in research at BU.

Over the past two years, the PIER partnership has become increasingly involved in supporting public involvement in research at BU. Building on the strong foundations of harnessing lived experience expertise in education across the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (led by Angela Paget and Peter Atkins, PIER officers), PIER received core HEIF funding in 2022 to expand our reach to offer a BU wide provision to support public involvement in research. We now support public and community involvement in research in every faculty at BU. Typically this involves supporting researchers to develop a meaningful and impactful approach to harnessing lived experience in the design of their study at pre-award stage and connecting research teams to community partners and public contributors with relevant lived experience; and then being costed in to support public involvement through all stages of the research cycle once a funded project is underway. PIER research activity also involves co-designing and evaluating inclusive public and community involvement methodologies; providing training, coaching and mentoring to external partners; building capacity within the voluntary and community sector to collaborate on research opportunities; contributing to local and national steering groups and advisory boards, and presenting and publishing our work with PIER members and partners. The demand for PIER involvement now far outweighs our capacity and we very much welcome the addition of the PIER Research Champions to support this work. Chloe, Linda and Aisling all bring a wealth of expertise in collaborating with communities in research and we look forward to continuing to grow the PIER partnership with them along with Pete, Angela, Kate and our PIER members and community partners.

If you would like to find out more about the PIER partnership and our activities in education or research, or to become involved, please get in touch.