€7.3 million funding comes from the Health Research Board (HRB), and €2.7 million co-funding from lead sites. Phase II will see the network grow from seven to 11 university sites  North and South. The Central Office moves from the University of Galway to RCSI University
of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Dr Gráinne Gorman, Chief Executive at the Health Research Board (HRB), says:

“We are proud to invest in a further five-year phase of the PPI Ignite Network. Public and
patient involvement is critical to making research more relevant, impactful and inclusive.
The HRB is committed to championing initiatives that embed PPI into the research system,
ensuring that the voices of people with lived experience are heard and drive meaningful and
lasting change.”

HRB’s PPI Lead, Dr Anne Cody added:

“This next stage of funding is particularly exciting as for the first time there is formal co-
leadership by members of the public, embedded across all levels of decision making and
governance. We are also addressing a recognised barrier to PPI, the limited availability of
seed funding, with a ring-fenced budget of €500,000 for this purpose. This will enable
researchers and PPI partners to support new and existing partnerships and to strengthen
PPI approaches in the development of future research.”

Phase II will broaden the pool of researchers and the types of health and social care
research that include PPI. It will also see the network develop resources and supports for
researchers to integrate PPI in data science, big data/AI projects and patient data re-use for
health research.

Notes for editors:

Phase II funding of the PPI Ignite Network will begin on 1 March 2026.

Public and Patient Involvement (PPI)

Public and patient involvement in research means that the public and patients are involved
in planning and carrying out research from start to finish. They also help in telling the public
about the results of research.

The PPI Ignite Network

The PPI Ignite is an all-island network of universities, civil society organisations and
members of the public coming together to improve health research. It supports researchers
and public contributors to work in partnership to make public involvement in research a
normal and expected part of health and social care research. This makes research more
relevant, more trusted, and more likely to make a real impact in people’s lives.

The 11 PPI Ignite Network lead sites/co-funders are:

1. Dublin City University
2. Maynooth University
3. Queens University Belfast
4. RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences (also hosting Central PPI Programme
Office)
5. Southeast Technological University
6. Trinity College Dublin
7. Technological University Dublin
8. University College Cork
9. University College Dublin
10. University of Galway
11. University of Limerick

All-island Partners (who partner across the entire Network)

1. Health Research Charities Ireland (HRCI)
2. HSE Research and Development
3. Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science, and Industry (IPPOSI)
4. TUSLA Child and Family Agency
5. Structured Population Health, Policy, and Health-Services Research Education (SPHeRE)
Programme
6. Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
7. Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland
8. Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA)
9. The Royal Irish Academy (RIA)
10. European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN)

Local Partners

82 Local partners (e.g. individual charities and community development groups,
international and all-island academic collaborators, advocacy groups).