Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in lab-based research. What is the added value? Reflections from a researcher and public contributor perspective.

Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in research is a requirement for most health and care funding applications. Whilst there is a plethora of resources about how to actively involve patients and the public in applied and clinical research, resources tailored to non-clinical; laboratory-based research remain limited. There is also little evidence describing the added value PPI brings to researchers and public contributors in this setting. In this reflective case study, the authors explore how sustained PPI helped shape a non-clinical, lab-based research project over a three-year period and highlight learnings from both a researcher and public contributor perspective. The authors describe how involvement improved communication, the framing of research questions, and the development of translational relevance, outlining challenges and opportunities that emerged through iterative co-learning and reflexive dialogue. The experience of the authors highlights how PPI can foster meaningful engagement in basic science, contributing to translational advances for patients. Importantly, this collaboration also shaped researcher identity and contributed to career development, showing that involvement can influence not only research outputs but also professional direction and institutional culture.