I am at the INVOLVE two-day conference in Nottingham this week. 

INVOLVE is the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded programme promoting public involvement in research.  It is perhaps worth adding that INVOLVE is the only publicly funded national organisation of its kind across the world.  It’s a packed conference – almost 500 delegates from a wide variety of backgrounds including many researchers and research managers.

The theme of this week’s conference is innovation and impact and I was delighted that at this afternoon’s workshop sessions, TwoCan Associates launched their patient and public involvement routemap on which they have been working with AMRC and others for the last six months or so.

The routemap is really a very simple idea and works very much like the London tube map.

So, if you are a member of staff working in a research charity (or other organisation for that matter) and tasked with implementing public and patient involvement (PPI), the idea is that you follow the route and at each ‘stop’ can learn more about the beenfits of PPI in a particular aspect of research funding – from setting research priorities to making funding decisions and dissemination – plus look at some case studies of how others have achieved it.

I mean, what could be better than getting to drive your own tube train.  Click on the picture below and you can try it for yourself.

If you are looking for information about the decision to get rid of the DG for Science post at BIS then go to Becky’s Policy Pages.  I haven’t had time to catch up with all the news but I fail to see how three into one can go without some significant loss of focus and momentum on science within the department.  No one should underestimate how important its current incumbent, Adrian Smith, in making the science case so forcefully to HM Treasury.