King's/MRC Public Partnership Programme

It is essential to embed public involvement across all types of research, and to provide both learning opportunities and practical experience for researchers early in their careers (Vocal-MRC, 2022). This is particularly important in under-developed areas like lab-based biomedical research, which often happens in an isolated environment. The King’s/MRC Public Partnership Programme addresses this through two strands of work. The primary strand will foster a new generation of biomedical researchers who are confident and equipped to make public involvement a core element of their research. Targeting Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in the ‘Exploration’ (early post-doctoral) and ‘Transition to Independence’ career stages, we will support researchers at a pivotal moment—when they are preparing to lead impactful research but lack funding and connections to enable public involvement at proposal stage. Support will take the form of seed funding for pre-application public involvement along with lived experience-led training (funded separately), tailored one-to-one support, and mentorship from both public contributors and public involvement professionals. With King’s averaging 60 annual applications to MRC ECR schemes, we have a defined and manageable applicant pool from which we can support 30 projects with up to £400 each. A secondary, invite-only strand will support up to three large-scale MRC infrastructure bids, such as the Centres of Research Excellence, with up to £1000. These strategic bids will benefit from our networks of national charities, community groups, and public contributors, ensuring public voices shape research priorities, approaches and investment decisions. Awardees will participate in mandatory structured training and be paired with a public involvement professional and public co-applicant as mentors. These mentors will provide awardees with individualised guidance in designing and delivering their involvement activities —an approach that addresses a common gap in existing programmes by pairing hands-on practice with expert guidance. Programme Objectives: Equip 30 ECRs with the awareness, confidence, skills and networks to meaningfully involve publics in their research, increasing the quality, competitiveness, and relevance to healthcare of their research. Develop a cohort of 10 trained public contributors and community champions to help broaden community engagement in MRC research, leading to more positive involvement environments, reported against the Standards for Public Involvement, that allow diverse communities to directly shape MRC research, building trust between communities and researchers. Capture 3-5 examples of best practice and innovation in public involvement in underdeveloped areas, such as biomedical discovery research and within large scale infrastructure bids. Combine insights from this scheme with existing programmes to support a business case programme funding beyond 2027. Our team, including seven professional service staff, four researchers and eight public contributors, will co-deliver this scheme. We currently run three schemes supporting early-stage public involvement, including university-wide, mental health/neuroscience, and translational research focused initiatives. This new programme will expand our support into additional MRC areas, including Infections and Immunity, Molecular and Cellular Medicine, and Population and Systems Medicine. By strengthening ECR capabilities and embedding public voices in research from the outset, the programme will support a lasting culture change in how medical research, from discovery science to clinical application, is conducted, ensuring it is co-produced with communities and focused on real-world health impacts.