Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Officer - Cancer Research Clinical Trials Unit - 108312 - Grade 7

Position Details

Cancer Clinical Trials Unit, School of Medical Sciences, 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 December 2027

Closing date: 23rd November 2026

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

This is an exciting opportunity for an effective Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Officer to work with the Deputy Director of Operations and the CRCTU to shape and deliver its Public Involvement and Engagement Strategy. The post-holder will work with teams of trial management staff responsible for the administration of clinical trial research projects across a range of disease conditions to implement and enhance PPIE activity across the CRCTU.

Importantly, this role will help ensure that CRCTU’s activities are relevant to the health and social care needs of the patient communities it represents.

CRCTU builds on experience of involving patients and the public in a range of research projects. The Public Involvement and Engagement Officer will ensure that CRCTU’s ways of working with public contributors align to the NIHR UK Standards for Public Involvement.

Role Summary

• Working with the Clinical Trials Facilitation Team Lead, CRCTU Deputy Director of Operations, CRCTU Patient Advisory Board and CRCTU PPIE hub to develop and implement the CRCTU Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Strategy.
• Providing leadership to members of the CRCTU Community (researchers and public contributors) on all matters relating to public involvement and engagement.
• Developing new ways of working with public contributors, which help embed principles and features of co-production.
• Building capacity, skills and expertise in Public Involvement and Engagement in the CRCTU.
• Capturing the impact of involvement and engagement activities.
• Contributing to the evidence base of public involvement through evaluation and reporting of public involvement activities.
• Working in partnership with regional and national committees.
• Working with University Engagement teams to support the growth of public involvement and engagement in health and social care research in our diverse communities.

Main Duties

• Be a first-point of contact for patient and public contributors and researchers in the CRCTU in matters relating to Public Involvement and Engagement.
• Work in partnership with the CRCTU Public Involvement Community, staff and researchers to create a strong infrastructure, which promotes a positive culture of public involvement in all activities. These activities may take place at project and unit levels in the CRCTU.
• Manage and facilitate public involvement in CRCTU, creating and maintaining a CRCTU Public Contributor database and providing support to public contributors in their roles.
• Build strong relations with service users, third sector organisations and diverse, local communities. This will help ensure CRCTU’s public contributors reflect the diverse communities who participate in cancer research.
• Identify barriers to public involvement and engagement and develop inclusive strategies to overcome these barriers.
• Support capacity development through teaching, training and drop-in sessions to members of the CRCTU Community and wider University that want to enhance skills and knowledge in public involvement.
• Gather feedback from researchers and CRCTU public contributors on public involvement activities to inform the future development of ways of working.
• Contribute to outputs, including conference presentations, articles, such as blog pieces, newsletters, project reports and funding applications
• Manage the CRCTU Public Involvement expenditure records and ensure public contributors are reimbursed expenses and honoraria.
• Inform regular reporting activities for CRCTU, such as Committee reports and reporting for CRUK and presenting updates at local, regional and national meetings.
• Work in partnership with regional and national Public Involvement Leads to coordinate Public Involvement/Engagement projects and activities
• Represent CRCTU at regional and national level.
• Ad-hoc support for any other projects/duties as directed by your Line Manager and the Directors of CRCTU.
• Perform other tasks pertinent to the role.
• Support the delivery of clinical research in accordance with Good Clinical Practice (GCP), the Declaration of Helsinki, applicable legislation (including, but not limited to, the Medicines for Human Use Clinical Trials Regulations, Data Protection Act 1998, Human Tissue Act), the Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care, Caldicott principals, and applicable NHS Trust and University policies and procedures, (including, but not limited to the University’s Data Protection Policy, Information Security Policy and Code of Practice for Research) in order to protect the research subject and the quality of each study.
• Fosters a fair and equitable workplace for all staff.
• Other relevant criteria from our equality and diversity duties document.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• First degree in relevant subject or equivalent experience.
• Proven knowledge and experience of managing public involvement and engagement in health and social care research.
• Good understanding of key issues in public involvement, diversity and inclusion and relevant national policies and strategic documents.
• Proven interpersonal and communication skills with ability to work with a range of partners including researchers, NHS staff, local authorities, third sector organisations and service users and community groups.
• Excellent organisational and time-management skills to manage and deliver a range of initiatives and projects to tight deadlines.
• Experience of designing and delivering public involvement and engagement events for a range of audiences.
• 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.
• Ability to travel within the region and to national meetings outside CRCTU on occasion.
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics and duties under the Equality Act 2010. Including fostering good relations and advancing the universities Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).
• Other relevant criteria from our equality and diversity knowledge, skills and experience document.

Further particulars can be found here

Informal enquiries to Sonia Fox, email: s.fox.2@bham.ac.uk

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.