The Public Involvement group (P.I.G.) was established by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) in 2002. People of different ages and backgrounds from across Scotland were initially recruited by advertisement.
The group membership currently consists of 9 volunteers and is chaired by Mrs Joan Munro who has considerable experience of lay involvement in a number of areas including research ethics. Group members come from a variety of backgrounds but all have an interest in the NHS and research on health and health care needs in Scotland.
Group members are provided with training every 3-4 months to provide them with appropriate background on research and to keep them up to date with developments both in CSO and elsewhere. This mainly involves informative sessions arranged by CSO whereby guest speakers have been asked to provide talks on a variety of subjects such as:-
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Assessing Qualitative/Quantitative Research Proposals |
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The Genetics and Healthcare Initiative (GHI)/Generation Scotland |
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What is a Clinical Trial? |
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Full Economic Costing |
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The United Kingdom Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) |
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Research Involving Children |
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Visit to a Clinical Research Facility (CRF) - Wellcome Trust CRF - Western General Hospital, Edinburgh |
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Shaping the Future of Asthma Research |
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Osteoporosis |
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Tour of the Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital, the University of Aberdeen CRF and NHS Grampian's Medical Imaging Facilities |
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Scottish Academic Health Sciences Collaboration |
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Research Ethics |
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NHS Research Scotland - Permissions System |
P.I.G. members are well integrated into the work of CSO, serving as full members of the Experimental and Translational Medicine Research Committee, the Health Services and Population Health Research Committee, the Chief Scientist Committee, the NHS Advisory Group and other working groups. Lay members have no specific remit in these Committees and are asked to comment where they can and ensure that the proceedings and decisions made are fair and transparent. Additionally, some of them have the task of casting a lay eye on various papers emanating from CSO to ensure the science is communicated in a language which the general public can understand.
An information pack is also available to download.
Volunteers
Anyone interested in becoming a member of our group should contact
Karen Ford
Chief Scientist Office
Room GE14
Regent Road
St Andrews House
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
Karen.FordNOSPAM@Scotland.gsi.gov.uk (delete NOSPAM from the address) or
Tel: 0131-244-2246. There are currently no vacancies, but your name will
be held on file should a vacancy arise.