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Diabetes Patient Panel

Our Diabetes Patient Panel is an active partnership between researchers and people with lived experience of diabetes, including individuals living with the condition and their partners or carers.

Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) brings essential real-world insight into research, combining experiential knowledge with academic expertise to ensure projects are relevant, meaningful, and grounded in the priorities of those most affected. By involving patients and the public, we strengthen the quality of research, increase transparency and accountability, and help ensure research delivers genuine impact.

The Diabetes Patient Panel has grown over time and now includes more than 50 members with a wide range of life and research experience. Researchers engage with the panel at every stage of the research cycle, from shaping early ideas and supporting grant applications, to improving recruitment strategies and sharing findings at project completion.

This two-way collaboration benefits everyone involved: panel members actively influence the direction and quality of research, while researchers gain invaluable patient and public perspectives. The panel includes highly experienced contributors who have served on funding and priority-setting panels, offering particular value to early-career researchers by highlighting the importance of clear communication and patient-centred research design.