Let’s be vocal together

A vocal community

We believe that by working together, as a holistic research community of people, communities, artists, researchers and more, we can push the boundaries of what research can achieve, now and in the future. We work creatively with communities and researchers to connect with people where they work, live and socialise. And we’re always looking for new opportunities to do this.

We’re particularly passionate about working with people who might have been excluded or made to feel unwelcome by health research. By working together to make research more inclusive, we create a world where people – no matter who they are or where they come from – can influence research for a better, healthier future.

Creating change together

Our team has many years of combined experience of connecting people and research. We believe our approach is imaginative, collaborative and sensitive. Our strength is building on the joint talents and knowledge of researchers, people and communities to influence research, personal and collective health.

We aim to break down barriers between research systems, people and policies. We know that we can effect change by working together across research and public communities, making sure that everyone matters, being bold and innovating, and driving excellence and quality.

For example, addressing health inequalities in research is a pressing concern for all the people we work with – researchers and public communities alike. By bringing researchers and people together to jointly create change, we’ve strengthened the strategic focus of Manchester clinical research towards addressing inequalities, co-produced training about inclusive research and included more diverse voices in the development of research.

As a team, we have backgrounds in science, nursing, museums, the pharmaceutical industry, research governance, science communication, social science, anthropology, public health, youth work, education, psychology, community development, race relations, policy and funding. We are passionate about working with all kinds of difference.

Our opportunities and services create the means whereby we can work together to create change in health and research for everyone’s benefit.

In scientific jargon, our work is sometimes called patient and public involvement and engagement in research – PPI or PPIE for short. We’re always striving to do our work better. We evaluate and aim to learn from everything we do. For a more in-depth description of our approach please see our paper, Innovating public engagement and patient involvement through strategic collaboration and practice