PHA helping to build research partnerships

A training workshop with the aim of building research partnerships was hosted recently by the Public Health Agency’s HSC R&D Division and the Northern Ireland Cancer Trials Centre in collaboration with Macmillan Cancer Support.

The purpose of the training, which has been developed by Macmillan Cancer Support, is to bring together researchers, health professionals, service users, carers and members of the public to help improve partnership working in the area of Personal and Public Involvement (PPI) in research.

The workshop was facilitated by Derek Stewart, Macmillan Cancer Support and Margaret Grayson, Chair of the Northern Ireland Cancer Consumer Forum and was supported by Janine McCann through a mixture of lively presentations and small group exercises.

The workshop was attended by over 30 delegates from a range of HSC, academic and voluntary sector organisations. Northern Ireland is the first area in the UK to train service users to deliver this type of workshop and it is hoped that many more workshops will be organised to help build capacity into PPI within HSC research in Northern Ireland.