The UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC) invests public money in world-class biomedical research and innovation. MRC aims to improve human health and economic prosperity for everyone, regardless of background, place or upbringing.
Our new public partnerships strategy supports the UKRI public engagement strategy. It outlines MRC’s ambition and actions for effective collaboration and genuine partnerships between researchers, MRC staff, public involvement and engagement professionals, individuals and communities. We have written this three-year strategy as an initial commitment to our long term ambition.
What we mean by public partnerships
By public partnerships we mean all the different ways that people and the research community can come together to shape and share scientific research. Public partnerships cover the whole spectrum of public engagement, which includes involvement and community engagement.
Public partners encompass a diverse range of communities and people of all ages and backgrounds, who bring different life experiences, knowledge and perspectives. This includes members of the public, patients and voluntary and community groups, both in the UK and internationally.
Why public partnerships are important
For public partners and researchers, these relationships offer opportunities to share knowledge and experience. This collaboration improves the relevance of research, making it more likely that everyone will benefit.
Types of research
We support:
- clinical research which takes place in healthcare settings and usually involves patients
- public health research which looks at defined local, regional or national populations
- non-clinical research that does not take place in a healthcare setting, for example lab-based experiments and data science
Our public partnerships strategy applies to all the research that MRC supports. We particularly want to increase public partnerships in non-clinical research where they can bring benefit to research and society.
Working with others
Across UKRI, we are working to improve how we involve people in research. We have signed up to the Shared Commitment to Public Involvement because we want to give people a meaningful say in how health and social care research is carried out.
How we developed this strategy
We know that MRC researchers are already inspiring future generations through their engagement with local schools, teachers, science festivals and online resources. Our researchers also engage closely with patient and family groups discussing research findings and potential impacts. Our public partnerships strategy builds on these foundations.
We worked with an external advisory group run by Vocal to gather insights, suggestions and views about future MRC priorities. We held five workshops in summer 2023 with over 140 UK and international attendees, including 23 public partners, and explored our ambitions for public partnerships.
We also received over 350 responses to our consultation on the draft strategy in January 2024 and held three stakeholder workshops with over 60 attendees. These responses informed the final strategy.
What we've heard
We’ve heard that values are important. Our public partnerships strategy is based on our core values of integrity, collaboration, innovation and excellence and our belief that a diversity of ideas, opinions, knowledge and people enrich our work.
We’ve heard that we need to develop ourselves as an organisation and share power to enable public partnerships to flourish. We are committed to this culture change and keen to learn and improve on this journey.
Our priorities, goals and actions
1. Make sure public partnerships are a key aspect of research culture throughout the MRC research community
What we are doing now:
- new MRC Centres of Research Excellence must include public partnerships in their research culture plans and research activities
- across UKRI, we are developing a clear payment policy for public partners, building on existing good practice in the sector
We want to:
- improve MRC-funded research through purposeful and inclusive public partnerships
- make sure public partnerships influence the development of MRC’s research funding opportunities and funding decisions, so that these are relevant and responsive to all in society
We will do this by:
- setting clear expectations and requiring all applicants for MRC funding to consider how public partnerships could inform and improve their research
- providing clear guidance for researchers and reviewers about MRC funding to support public partnerships, informed by good practice from others
- engaging appropriate experts (public partners, public involvement and engagement professionals) to assess grant applications
- implementing our new payment policy for public partners
- introducing ways to reward and recognise public partnerships and the mutual benefits they bring, for example through our prizes and awards
- piloting a funding initiative that enables public partnerships to inform research design at the pre-application stage
2. Integrate public partnerships into leadership throughout the MRC research community
What we are doing now:
- involving senior leaders in the strategic planning and oversight of MRC’s public involvement and engagement activities, including co-developing this strategy
We want to:
- set clear expectations for senior leaders in the MRC research community to shape research by establishing mutually beneficial public partnerships
- make sure public partnerships influence MRC’s funding strategy so that our focus and priorities are relevant and bring inclusive benefits across society
- lead on embedding public partnerships in non-clinical research
We will do this by:
- appointing a new programme director to bring specialist expertise and leadership in public involvement, with a focus on non-clinical research
- establishing a public advisory group to guide ways of working and ensure effective public partnerships throughout the MRC research community
- supporting public partners to take on leadership roles, for example, chairing advisory groups and co-leading research projects
3. Improve understanding of the differences that public partnerships make to non-clinical research
What we are doing now:
- publishing case studies that describe the different impacts and mutual learning from public partnerships
- running a funding opportunity to improve understanding, design and practice of public involvement methods in non-clinical research
We want to:
- understand and share the positive impacts that public partnerships can make to non-clinical research and motivate the MRC community to establish these more widely
- improve understanding of how to develop impactful and effective public partnerships
We will do this by:
- piloting initiatives to help us understand the difference that public partnerships make in non-clinical research
- promoting a culture of shared learning
4. Diversify the range of people the MRC research community partners with
What we are doing now:
- increasing the diversity of our board and committee membership
- funding a Black in Biomedical Research programme to improve representation of Black biomedical researchers, as part of our wider race equity work
We want to:
- make sure that public partnerships reflect, and are relevant to, the needs of all communities within our diverse society
- align our commitment to public partnerships with the actions MRC is taking to foster an inclusive research culture that values diversity
- provide opportunities for under-served communities to shape research that meets their needs
We will do this by:
- setting clear expectations that public partnership opportunities should be accessible, open and inclusive to all
- encouraging initiatives to build long term relationships between the MRC research community and diverse communities of geography, identity or practice, including under-served groups
- monitoring and reporting on demographic information about public partnerships at MRC head office
5. Make health and biomedical research accessible to all and engage the next generation
What we are doing now:
- MRC researchers are inspiring future generations through their engagement with local schools, student programmes, science festivals, online resources and partnering with teachers
- working with public engagement colleagues across UKRI to share learning and good practice
We want to:
- nurture trustworthy research and innovation
- engage with the public to shape and share our research activities and priorities
- create diverse and inclusive research teams
We will do this by:
- encouraging and sharing opportunities for effective and sustainable partnerships between researchers and communities, schools and the public to improve awareness, interest and trust in research
- encouraging public partnerships that engage people in shaping research or informing research priorities and approaches
6. Support and develop everyone working in public partnerships to promote continuous learning and sustainability
What we are doing now:
- we piloted a webinar series in April 2023 to showcase public involvement in practice from the perspective of researchers and public partners
We want to:
- develop the knowledge and practice of researchers, public involvement and engagement professionals and public partners, empowering everyone to build effective collaborations to support research
- increase expertise in public partnerships that adds value to non-clinical research
- increase the skills of MRC head office staff to integrate public partnerships into their research funding and strategic activities
We will do by:
- co-creating training and learning opportunities to support public partnerships, especially in non-clinical research
- establishing shared learning networks for public partnerships
- learning from each other by piloting reciprocal mentoring schemes between members of the MRC community and public partners
Delivering our strategy and reviewing progress
We will develop and publish an annual action plan with details of how we will implement our strategy.
With our public advisory group, MRC-funded researchers and public involvement and engagement professionals, we will develop and publish an evaluation plan to measure progress.
We will monitor and evaluate the outcomes and impact of the strategy so we can learn and improve.