NIHR HRC PCH Education Programme: Involving Young People and Families in HealthTech Innovation
Monday 30 March 2026
Jess McNeill
We’re pleased to share that our newly launched education programme, Elevate2Innovate (E2I), has just completed a two-part series on “Involving Children, Young People, and Families in HealthTech Research and Innovation”.
E2I is a comprehensive training programme, developed and delivered by the NIHR HRC in Paediatrics and Child Health (NIHR HRC PCH), which aims to upskill early career researchers (ECRs) and prepare them for a successful career in health technology research. The programme is primarily for a cohort of 10 PhD students funded by the NIHR HRC PCH, but many of the sessions are open to other ECRs within our networks so that we can support the next generation of child health researchers through accessible, free education.
The first few months of the E2I Programme include a three-part interactive webinar series on “The Innovation Journey”, which introduces students to the basic principles of HealthTech development, and a series of sessions and resources dedicated to Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE), in the context of child health research.
Involving Children, Young People, and Families in HealthTech Research and Innovation
The NIHR HRC PCH places children, young people, and families at the centre of everything we do through our PPIE and Research Inclusion strategies that are embedded across our research portfolio. Through a combination of online and in-person sessions, we want to empower the E2I cohort and other ECRs in the UK to understand the importance and impact of meaningful patient involvement on healthcare innovation.
Over the last few weeks, our Education and PPIE Programme teams within the NIHR HRC PCH have worked together to deliver an online webinar, an all-day in-person workshop in Sheffield, and a collection of resources and tools for the participants on “Involving Children, Young People, and Families in HealthTech Research and Innovation”.
DR VENKAT REDDY
Education Programme Director, NIHR HRC PCH
JESS MCNEILL
Project Manager, NIHR HRC PCH
JEN PRESTON
PPIE Executive Lead, NIHR HRC PCH
DR GEMMA WHEELER
Senior Project Manager, NIHR HRC PCH
Webinar
The webinar covered the basic principles of patient involvement and the rationale for embedding it across the innovation pipeline. Our fantastic expert speakers, Jen Preston and Dr Gemma Wheeler, covered key topics including policy, regulatory, and funder requirements for including young people and families in research and introduced participants to examples of best practice guidelines and frameworks.
Participants reflected that the in-depth Q&A at the end of the webinar was particularly helpful because the speakers guided us through their answers using real-life examples and practical solutions.
“It really came across how expert the panel of speakers was, and it was refreshing to have a PPIE talk that actually went into real-life examples that helped explain concepts. I have attended a lot of PPIE talks that spend several hours going through things that are already available to read online, so it was great to have a session that focused on real examples and practicalities.”
– Participant feedback
Workshop
This all-day in-person session was a fantastic follow-up to the webinar with Jen and Gemma joining us again as our expert speakers. The workshop enabled participants to build on their understanding from the previous session and learn how to apply it to their own practice. Jen and Gemma facilitated learning through a great combination of seminar-style discussions, interactive learning methods such as Lego Serious Play, and taking participants through real-world examples and techniques for involving and engaging young people and families in HealthTech innovation.
One of the final elements of the workshop involved taking participants through our ‘marketplace’ of tools and resources for planning and implementing PPIE activities for children, young people, families, and other key stakeholders.
“All great speakers! Felt very inclusive as someone who is not on an HRC PCHA funded programme”
– Participant feedback
“A really good mix of interaction and more didactic teaching.”
– Participant feedback
Feedback is really important to the E2I team because we want to make sure this programme delivers content at the right level and depth and in a format that participants are excited to engage with. We’re delighted to have received such wonderful feedback from participants so far, and we look forward to incorporating some of the great ideas and suggestions in future elements of the programme.
For regular updates on the E2I Programme and other educational activities we support, sign up to our mailing list and read about the programme launch using the links below.
To find out more about our work on involving young people and families and read our Research Inclusion and PPIE strategies, please visit the Patient Involvement page on our website.