Supporting researcher-led public and community engagement: reflections from an internal engagement funding scheme at a global health research programme

<ns5:p>Background Public and community engagement (PCE) in health research is increasingly promoted by research organizations to strengthen their research culture However, barriers that may make researchers hesitate to undertake PCE activities may be heightened in Global South research settings. To address these challenges, we set up an award scheme at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) across four research sites in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Nepal to enable researchers to incorporate public engagement activities in their research. Methods The Seed Award scheme followed three steps: 1. A call for applications and funding decisions: Researchers were invited to submit grant applications twice per year. Applications were reviewed and funding decisions made by a committee including external reviewers. 2. Supporting and monitoring: Successful awardees were supported to further develop their proposals, strengthen engagement capacity and to plan evaluation. 3. Reporting and evaluation: Awardees were encouraged to conduct evaluation throughout the activities and to submit an end-of-project report. The scheme itself was evaluated using mixed methods. Results Between 2016–2022, 41 small grants were awarded. The majority of awards were granted to senior researchers and research assistants. The rest of the awardees included the PhD students, clinical trial coordinators and other departments such as the training department and public engagement personnel. The PCE team supporting the scheme delivered 19 training sessions to help strengthen awardees PCE capacity. Conclusions We conclude that the scheme made a profound impact in encouraging researchers to lead and be involved with PCE activities. During this period, more researchers, of all grades, were active in engagement projects. The scheme was improved by adding mentoring and training. In this paper, we describe the process of development and implementation of this award programme, which aims to support and promote researcher-led public engagement and reflect on the challenges and lessons learned.</ns5:p>