Service user groups as co-applicants on a platform study for a trial

Background It is recognised that patient and public involvement (PPI) in research should begin at the earliest stage possible. Whilst this ideal is widely acknowledged, in practice, it is not easily achievable. Constraints of time, funding, ethics and availability of appropriate representatives often mean that PPI is not included until research is fairly well advanced. This jeopardises one object of PPI; to ensure that research is being carried out ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public rather than ‘to’, ‘about’ or ‘for’ them, because it marginalises members of the public during the crucial project scoping and design phases.