BU Research Blog

2 February 2025

Patient & Public Involvement workshop with Arabic women

PG research, Public engagement, Women's Academic Network Edwin van Teijlingen

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Abier Hamidi recently conducted the first of two Patient and Public Involvement workshops with Arabic women. Mentored by Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and Dr. Pramod Regmi, and funded by FHSS QR Pump Prime, Abier explores Arabic women’s understanding of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWGs) and their access to health services. During this initial workshop, three Arabic women actively contributed their insights and experiences to refine the questionnaire, design the survey dissemination strategy, and ensured ethical, linguistic, and cultural considerations were met.

The survey is set to launch in May, and with the help of the women, will be distributed nationwide. Once the survey closes, the women will be invited to the second workshop, where they will collaborate with Abier to interpret the results.

Abier Hamidi is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Wellbeing & Long-term Health, working on a Cancer Research UK-funded study under the supervision of Professor Steven Ersser, researching Early Detection of Skin Cancer. Her PhD thesis is titled ‘Understanding the gender and religious context of women and HIV in Libya: A mixed-methods study’. Supervisors: Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.

23 November 2021

Join the next meeting of the Public Engagement with Research Network

Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement, Training Adam Morris

We’ll hear from Dr Mel Hughes and colleagues about PPI (Public and Patient Involvement in Research) and a new internal funding stream for public engagement.

Public engagement with research intersects with a number of other ways of communicating your research or involving people in it. At our next PER Network meeting we’ll look at one of those other ways, welcoming Dr Mel Hughes, Academic Lead for the BU PIER (Public Involvement in Education and Research) Partnership, Rachel Jury, PIER member, and Angela Warren, PIER coordinator who will provide a brief introduction to the what, why and how of public involvement in research, or PPI.

This is an opportunity to learn about different approaches to public involvement, the benefits to your research and the pitfalls to avoid. This session is co-designed and facilitated with a representative from the PIER partnership (Public Involvement in Education and Research), who has extensive experience of sharing their lived experience expertise in research studies. There will be opportunity at the end to ask your questions about public involvement.

We’ll also other news on public engagement from BU, including a new internal funding stream for public engagement and how you can apply.

The meeting will take place 1-2pm on Thursday 25 November, on Teams.

To join this meeting and find out about future ones, join our BU Public Engagement with Research Network. Check under ‘Meetings’ for upcoming sessions.

25 May 2021

VOICE@BU

Awarded & submitted bids, NHS, Post-award, Public engagement Louise Ward

VOICE is an exciting new digital platform for coordinating and supporting public involvement in research. BU has been awarded a licence of one year to trial and develop content on the platform.

We have used this opportunity to bring together the different teams working in BU to coordinate public involvement in research under the banner of VOICE@BU

VOICE@BU includes:

Mel Hughes, Pete Atkins and Angela Warren from the BU PIER Partnership
Helen Allen and Louise Ward from BUCRU and the NIHR Research Design Service South West (RDS SW)
Colleagues from the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences based research centres e.g. ADRC
Colleagues from BU Research Development & Support (RDS) Team (for coordinating public engagement)

On 11^th and 18^th May we ran two information events to explain VOICE@BU in more detail and provided a demonstration. One event for researchers, you can view the recording here and one event for members of the public and community organisations. Both events were well attended and both researchers and public contributors were keen to be involved.

Evidence shows that involving the public in the development of research at all stages of the research cycle ensures that research is relevant, participant friendly, ethically sound and improves outcomes for patients and service users. We are committed to increasing the range of voices that help shape and inform health and social care research at BU.

To summarise, researchers can:

Easily and quickly register for VOICE
Submit an opportunity request to involve members of the public in their research
Use the digital tools the platform offers to involve members of the public in research
Promote workshops/focus groups
Facilitate online discussions
Promote opportunities for the public to join steering groups
Online surveys & polls
Set timed challenges and encourage ideas from the community
Set up a closed group to communicate, share documents and support an established public involvement group
Communicate with VOICE members regarding specific opportunities
Access and share support and learning resources (From June) to help patient and public involvement and engagement activities

Please do register with VOICE and explore what is available and email us: voice@bournemouth.ac.uk to discuss how we can help get the public involved in your research and/or promote an event/opportunity to VOICE members.

Tagged / PPIE

Patient & Public Involvement workshop with Arabic women

Join the next meeting of the Public Engagement with Research Network

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