Position Details
College of Medicine and Health
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £36,636 to £46,049 with potential progression once in post to £48,822
Grade: 7
Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to August 2027
Closing date: 2nd August 2026
Interviews Scheduled: 12th and 14th August 2025
Our offer to you
People are at the heart of what we are and do.
The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.
We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.
We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.
Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.
The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.
Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham
Background
Working on behalf of the National Institute for Health & Care Research (NIHR) Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Manager will co-develop and implement the strategy of PPIE activities across the full range of thematic areas supported by the BRC. This includes experimental medicine research in areas such as acute care, arthritis, cancer, infection, women’s health and arthritis, as well as a strong focus on equality, diversity and inclusivity.
The vision of the NIHR Birmingham BRC is to be a world-leading centre for translational research into inflammatory diseases. NIHR BRCs are collaborations between NHS organisations and universities. They bring together academics and clinicians as well as patients and the public to translate scientific discoveries into potential new treatments, diagnostics and technologies. The NIHR Birmingham BRC is hosted by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with the University of Birmingham, joined by our new partners in Keele, Oxford and Aston Universities and additional NHS Trusts; Birmingham Women’s and Children’s, Birmingham Community Healthcare, and Sandwell and West Birmingham. This broad and expansive partnership gives us greater reach, diversity and opportunities for co-creation and impact across our regional population. We also benefit from Birmingham Health Partners (BHP); a strategic alliance of regional academic and NHS partners dedicated to jointly accelerating and implementing healthcare innovations.
Inflammation is a critical pathogenic driver in common chronic multi-morbidities, including cancer, representing a huge challenge for patients and the healthcare system, with a prevalence of 5-7%. More than 50% of deaths are attributable to long-term inflammation-related diseases, rendering them a major NHS and global priority. Our region covers around 6 million people, ~10% of the UK population. Our regional population is socially diverse, multi-ethnic with significant health inequalities and life expectancy lower than the UK average. The ethnic and socio-economic diversity of our population will ensure the global relevance of our research if we work in effective partnership. We will test and deliver new treatments for these diseases, most of which have no cure or treatments to improve quality of life, by addressing critical scientific and clinical challenges via our access to populations and patient cohorts. By addressing national and global health needs – and crucially, by working with our local and national communities to ensure their involvement drives our actions – the BRC will offer new hope for patients, new innovative approaches to therapy, and new ways for health providers to embrace transformative innovation in a cost-effective manner.
The post holder will be a core member of the NIHR Birmingham BRC central coordination team, as well as working closely across all regional partners. The post holder will guide and mentor other staff involved in patient and public involvement, engagement and participation activities and contribute to activities in the wider community and academic environments where this delivers demonstrable benefit to the local and national research initiatives/infrastructure. They will also be a key member of the Research Delivery team within the College of Medicine and Health’s (CMH) Research Office, which oversees a number of high-profile programmes, including the Health Data Research UK Midlands Community, NIHR Patient Safety Research Collaboration and major portfolios of work around areas such as women’s health, traumatic brain injury and global surgical networks.
Role Summary
This post will act as a central co-ordinator for PPIE in the BRC. It will work closely with all 11 themes to provide PPIE support and guidance to the researchers and PPIE Co-ordinators and support the overall ambitions of the BRC’s PPIE strategy. The post will also work closely with the wider CMH Involvement and Engagement team to collaborate on PPIE projects to avoid duplication of effort and ensure consistency across the wider College, while supporting the individual needs of the BRC.
As part of the core BRC PPIE team, this post will work to increase and improve public involvement in the NIHR BRC by building, developing and maintaining excellent relationships with diverse groups of patients and carers, patient and carer organisations, third sector organisations, faith organisations, and other stakeholders in the local and national health and social care economy, as well as a wide range of research and professional services colleagues.
It will play a lead role in providing advice, guidance and training to the BRC community (clinicians, academics, patient and public contributors) on all matters relating to public involvement and engagement.
The role involves:
- Working with the core BRC PPIE team and public contributors, the post holder will take an active role to maintain and implement a Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Strategy.
- Co-developing communications, events, collaborative approaches and other activities to promote patient and public involvement, as well as implementing and contributing to current and future initiatives from the NIHR and wider stakeholders in health and social care research around good practice in PPIE.
- Building capacity, skills and expertise in PPIE in the NIHR BRC Community and West Midlands region.
- Contributing to the evidence base of public involvement through evaluating and reporting on public involvement activities.
- Working in partnership with regional and national Public Involvement Leads from NIHR Centres and other key national stakeholders as part of the One NIHR Initiative.
- Ensuring that NIHR Centres and the research community work in a more coordinated and consistent way to engage, involve and collaborate with community organisations in Birmingham and the West Midlands. Also liaising with the University Public and Cultural Engagement team on shared initiatives.
- Working with the wider Involvement and Engagement Team at UoB, develop initiatives/activities to increase the diversity of communities engaged and involved in health and care research. Build strong relations with service users, third sector organisations and diverse, local communities. Identify barriers to public involvement and engagement and develop inclusive strategies to overcome these barriers.
- Maintaining up to date knowledge of national PPI initiatives and disseminating information across the organisation as appropriate.
- Working in partnership with the wider core NIHR BRC PPIE team to promote a positive culture of public involvement in all activities. These activities may take place at project, theme and programme wide level.
- Developing and maintaining close working relationships with colleagues at the University of Birmingham, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and in local NIHR infrastructures and other BRC partners.
Main Duties
The post holder will be required to:
- Support a diverse central NIHR BRC Patient and Public Advisory Group (PPAG), creating an inclusive and supportive environment for mutually beneficial collaboration and involvement of public contributors in the governance and operations of the NIHR BRC.
- Support PPIE Co-ordinators and researchers in the NIHR BRC Community in matters relating to Public Involvement and Engagement.
- Support the internal BRC PPI Community of Practice group and build excellent working relationships with members. Work to understand barriers to PPIE, provide central BRC PPIE guidance to each theme to enable them to deliver PPI effectively and encouraging all themes to proactively deliver PPIE across the BRC in a meaningful way.
- With others, create, maintain and support the delivery of an overall project management plan for PPIE and deliver allocated project outputs aligned with the NIHR BRC PPIE strategy, on time, to budget and to agreed standards.
- Support capacity development through teaching, training and drop-in sessions to members of the NIHR BRC Community that want to enhance skills and knowledge in PPIE (including researchers and public contributors) in collaboration with the UoB I & E team.
- Proactively monitor PPI activity taking place across the BRC and provide regular reports to the BRC Manager.
- Gather feedback from NIHR BRC researchers/partners and NIHR BRC public contributors on public involvement activities to inform the future ways of working.
- Monitor the NIHR BRC PPIE budget and expenditure ensuring public contributors are reimbursed for expenses and honoraria.
- Provide input into regular reporting activities for NIHR BRC, such as Management and Executive Committee reports.
- Working in conjunction with the wider I & E team, collate existing, and support the development of new, PPIE resources that support capacity and skills development in collaborative working, inclusive methods of involvement/engagement, and effective community engagement.
- With others, raise the profile of PPIE across the BRC researcher community, presenting and raising awareness of PPIE at relevant internal events and meetings at every opportunity.
- Oversee the development of relevant PPIE communications including web content, newsletters and social media.
- Facilitate the planning and delivery of engagement events and activities between local NIHR infrastructure and/or University of Birmingham and community organisations, in conjunction with the wider I & E hub.
- Perform administrative duties relevant to the post, including maintaining accurate records and documentation and ensuring compliance with GDPR and information security.
- Provide ad-hoc support for any other projects/duties as directed by your Line Manager and the Manager/Director of NIHR BRC.
Person Specification
- First degree in relevant subject or equivalent experience.
- Proven knowledge and experience of managing public involvement and engagement in health and social care research.
- Familiarity and experience with UK Standards for Public Involvement to develop working practices relevant to PPIE.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to influence and negotiate effectively with a range of stakeholders.
- Proven ability to work as part of a team. Experience of designing and delivering public involvement and engagement events for a range of audiences.
- Excellent organisational and time-management skills to manage and deliver a range of initiatives and projects to tight deadlines.
- Flexible approach to working, including problem-solving skills, ability to adapt to unforeseen demands and a desire to develop skills and knowledge.
- Ability to write clearly for a range of outputs including reports, funding applications, websites and social media platforms.
- Excellent IT skills, including Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), the internet and social media.
- Awareness and ability to comply with data protection legislation for monitoring and evaluation purposes and ensure that all activity complies with these demands.
- Ability to deal with matters of a confidential or sensitive nature.
- Be able to work flexibly with occasional evenings and weekends.
- Willingness to travel within the region and to national meetings.
- Good understanding of key issues in public involvement, diversity and inclusion and relevant national policies and strategic documents.
Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area.
-
Further particulars can be found here
Informal enquiries to Claire Wickett, email: [email protected]
View our staff values and behaviours here
Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.
We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .
