Challenges and possibilities of public and patient involvement for early-career researchers: pedagogy, practice and data governance

Abstract Background Early-career researchers face unique challenges in implementing effective and meaningful public and patient involvement (PPI) in their research. These barriers prevent early-career researchers from accessing the full benefits of effective PPI and often leads to tokenistic inclusion, which disempowers public and patient contributors. Therefore, there is a critical need to explore the possibilities of how to better support early-career researchers in achieving effective involvement of the public and/or patients. Main body Pedagogy, practice, and data governance represent three areas of PPI that present both challenges and possible opportunities to support early-career researchers. Regarding pedagogy, PPI requires deeper integration into research education as a tool which can be utilised to enhance research across disciplines. Moreover, curriculum development and delivery must align with the tenets of the field by actively involving public and patient contributors as co-educators. Regarding practice, early-career researchers often struggle with limited resources and the difficulty of reaching diverse populations who may not benefit from traditional involvement techniques. Creative involvement strategies offer an opportunity to expand early-career researchers’ repertoire of techniques to better empower contributors. Finally, data governance is an increasingly complex yet critical consideration in PPI. Early career researchers can feel ill-equipped to navigate these complexities alongside PPI contributors. We suggest a new framework to support early-career researchers in navigating this process with PPI contributors to ensure equitable and safe data governance. Conclusion Public and patient involvement poses many challenges to early-career researchers. However, addressing these difficulties within pedagogy, practice and data governance provides possibilities for better supporting researchers in collaborating meaningfully with PPI contributors to produce more rigorous and impactful research.