The NIHR SPHR recently launched its inaugural awards to recognise excellence in Public Involvement and Engagement (PI&E); and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). The awards have been designed to acknowledge creativity, innovation and brilliance in PI&E and EDI across the School.
The winners will be announced and awards will be presented at this year’s SPHR Annual Scientific Meeting which is to be held in Newcastle upon Tyne on Thursday 18th May. We will also be following up later with a series about the excellent work of the nominees, this will be made available on the SPHR website.
We are excited to announce the nominations below. The School would like to congratulate everyone who has received a nomination and thank those who took the time to provide nominations.
Nominations
EDI
Jennie Popay and Emma Halliday, LiLaC
Jennie and Emma were the drivers behind the FOR EQUITY website. Focus On Research and Equity (FOR EQUITY) is a web-based platform that provides tools and resources to help make research evidence more relevant for action to reduce social and health inequalities. Read more about FOR EQUITY.
Andeep Sull, SPHR Directorate
Andeep Sull, the SPHR Training Manager, has worked hard to transform and embed EDI into the School’s research capacity building programme. Andi has transformed the EDI processes at all stages of the recruitment of trainees including PhD students, pre and postdoctoral fellowships and transdisciplinary placements.
PI&E
Olivia Alliott, University of Cambridge
During her PhD on The Role of Socioeconomic Position in Adolescent Physical Activity, Olivia took over an evaluation of The Dragon’s Den Activity Clubs which seek to empower young people to develop youth led sport and physical activity projects. Olivia was nominated due to her commitment to working with community partners during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health and Environment Public Engagement (HEPE) Group
The HEPE group was co-created with members of the community in the Southwest to explore ways to integrate public partner involvement and engagement with research, teaching and other activities. More recently, they have expanded to work around environment and health inequalities in coastal communities, and around EDI/racism/colonialism in the Southwest (including the NERC REACH Project – this has included feeding into the the SPHR PI&E group and Healthy places, healthy planet research programme activities).
Mary Crowder, University of Sheffield
Mary is committed to ensuring that PI&E work is meaningful, thoughtful and, ultimately, mutually beneficial for research teams and public partners. Mary made a significant contribution to PI&E work in the CYPF programme in the last quinquennium (2012–2022), including helping to facilitate work with young people in underserved communities. She continues to build on this in in the current quinquennium (2022–2027) (some of the work that Mary’s was involved in can be found here).
Lizzy Winstone, University of Bristol
Lizzy has worked closely and collaboratively with young people to share the findings from her PhD into tangible recommendations. Lizzy coproduced an animation with the ARC West young people’s advisory group which was awarded was awarded first prize for ‘Best use of social media for involvement’ at the Emerging Minds UKRI inaugural Young People’s Involvement in Digital Mental Health Research and Development awards in July 2022.
Cassey Muir, Fuse
Cassey has proven to be exemplary in PI&E throughout her SPHR funded PhD, actively involving young people with lived experience of parental substance use. She has formed a remote Young Person Research Group with representation from across England, embedding them within her research and providing the group with training on research methods. She has facilitated the involvement of young people in the dissemination of research, this has included co-writing a recent Fuse blog post with a lived experience expert.
Gillian Samuel, SPHR public partner from The McPin Foundation
Gillian has been nominated for her hard work and dedication to PI&E in the School’s Public mental health programme. She has been involved in many projects since she started work as a Peer Researcher in May 2019. Gillian has progressed from the role of Peer Researcher to now being made a Senior Public Involvement in Research Co-ordinator.
Emma Giles and Jo Smith, Fuse
Emma and Jo developed a peer research and support model in response to feedback from the funding application relating to the co-produced study: ‘Understanding of the experiences of adults with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) living within the North of England in relation to food insecurity’. Based on this research they were shortlisted as finalists as part of the ‘Bright Ideas in Health Awards’ under the category ‘Cross organisation working to deliver research’.
The Fuse podcast group
The Fuse podcast group, led by Fuse Public Partner Network members in collaboration with researchers and staff, has created a new podcast which is a fantastic example of developing innovative and creative PI&E activities. The Public Health Research and Me podcast is entirely led by Fuse public partners and aims to bridge the gap between research and public audiences.
IAA Project Team “A collaborative approach to the implementation of restrictions of hot food takeaway outlets”, Fuse
This IAA project team has worked with practice partners from various fields and a public representative to develop an infographic which summarises the more important outcomes of the previously SPHR funded “Understanding barriers to implementing existing regulatory mechanisms to restrict fast-food takeaway outlets”.
The infographic was then used as a springboard to co-create a “How To Guide”, ensuring that the varying experiences of those involved were taken into account. The work has given unusual and successful opportunities for researchers, practitioners and community representatives to successfully work together.
Jean Palmer, University of Bristol
Jean joined the University of Bristol team as a public partner during the School’s second quinquennium. She has been involved in a wide range of SPHR activities, bringing a much-valued public voice to all Bristol’s work. Specifically, Jean has made a valuable contribution to the School by taking part in shortlisting PHPES applications, PhD proposals and fellowship applications, as well as advising on lay summaries.
Rhiannon Thompson, Imperial College London
Rhiannon designed and led research that documented the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns from the perspective of a London-based adolescent cohort. This involved designing workshops, the creation of ‘my lockdown’ canvasses and sessions where the young people’s advisory group came up with questions and topics to ask participants in one-to-one interviews following the workshops.
Emma Lawlor, Jenna Panter and Kate Garrott, University of Cambridge
Emma, Jenna and Kate carried out public involvement and engagement work during SPHR research exploring different modes of transport in Northstowe, Cambridgeshire. This included delivering public engagement at events, attending community forums and coproduction with policymakers and practitioners.
Lucy Oakey, PHRESH
Lucy has worked tirelessly to develop a diverse and engaged new PI&E group for the PHRESH consortium. Lucy is excellent at ensuring there is two way communication and that PI&E participants feel supported in their roles. She ensures all payments for participants time are processed swiftly and any issues are resolved in a timely manner. Lucy is innovative in thinking of new ways to engage the group in PHRESH’s research and ensures both the participants and the researchers get the most out of the collaborations formed.
Results
The winners of the awards are being decided by members of the EDI and PI&E strategy groups (with the PI&E group including PAN members) and then ratified by the School’s Management Group. The winners will be announced at the ASM on Thursday 18th May. The categories are as follows:
EDI
- Individual winner
- Team winner
PI&E
- Innovation in practice
- Recognition of long-term contribution to involvement and engagement
- Equity and inclusion in practice – researcher
- Equity and inclusion in practice – public partner
- Overall winner from the four categories above