Strengthening our regional patient and public involvement collaboration

Our regional patient and public involvement network, People in Health West of England (PHWE), has been strengthened with the inclusion of the new Bristol Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). The BRC is a major national research initiative funded by the NIHR to develop new treatments, prevention and care for a wide range of diseases.

NIHR CLAHRC West is a key supporter of the PHWE collaboration and we are delighted to work with a new partner that builds and enables additional involvement links across related research themes.

The involvement network also includes Healthwatch in our region and the Research Design Service South West. Hosted and led by the University of the West of England, the PHWE partners are:

• Bristol Health Partners
• Bristol NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC)
• NIHR CLAHRC West
• NIHR Clinical Research Network West of England
• West of England Academic Health Science Network

PHWE is supported by an involvement team of staff working across the partner organisations, and a strategy group with a strong public contributor voice. Noreen Hopewell Kelly is the public involvement lead for the Bristol BRC and Mike Bell, involvement facilitator, works across both the BRC and CLAHRC West, liaising closely with Rosie Davies, the public involvement lead for CLAHRC West.

Building our regional involvement collaboration enables us to deliver a strong learning and development programme for public involvement, and to advertise involvement opportunities to a large audience in the West of England. We are also working actively with NIHR INVOLVE to ensure good links and communication from a national to a local level.