INVOLVE commissioned Kristina Staley and Bec Hanley of TwoCan Associates and Alison Faulkner to compile the information for this resource. TwoCan Associates took the lead in collecting information and drafting all the guidance and advice sections of the resource. Alison Faulkner collected the information to write the case studies.

Lucy Simons, with the support of Sarah Buckland from the INVOLVE Coordinating Centre oversaw the development of the resource and undertook overall editing for style and content.

This resource should be referenced as:

INVOLVE (2012) Developing training and support for public involvement in research. INVOLVE, Eastleigh.

How was the information gathered?

The information in this resource is drawn from the direct experience of training and support by members of the public, researchers, trainers and public involvement specialists. This might be people’s experience of being a participant in training or support initiatives or experience of providing training or support. Contributors took part in a group conversation or individual interview to identify the key points for the main topics. All contributors have approved the final version of the text.

All the information in the case studies was correct as at May 2012. People’s roles, contact details and links to other information may subsequently change.

What this resource doesn’t do

This resource does not offer ‘off-the-shelf’ training programmes or a directory of training courses. This is because:

• There are very few publicly available training courses – most are developed for an internal audience (people working for or with a particular organisation) or they are integrated into individual research projects.
• Most off-the-shelf programmes need to be tailored to the situation – many are developed for a specific audience or situation, so may not be directly relevant to other situations or groups of people.
• Some people are reluctant to share the details of their training programme – quite fairly as they may have invested significantly in developing them and may be dependent on delivering training for their living.

Acknowledgements and contributors