HAPPI group

Professors Graham Law and Niro Siriwardena contributed to the Public Engagement for All with Research in Lincolnshire (PEARL) conference which took place at the Cargill Lecture theatre at the University of Lincoln on 21 March 2018. PEARL is an initiative led by Professors Carenza Lewis (Professor for the Public Understanding of Science) and Tim Hodgson (Professor of Psychology) at the University of Lincoln. The conference introduced by Prof Lewis sought to showcase and share publicly engaged research at the University. Prof Hodgson introduced the speakers at the event.

The first speaker was Professor Siriwardena who spoke on ‘From conception to dissemination: involving patients and the public in community and health research’, presenting CaHRU’s work supported by the Healthier Aging Patient and Public Involvement (HAPPI) group. This included the involvement of patients in the Resources for Effective Sleep Treatment (REST) study and the animation produced by the Prehospital Outcomes for Evidence Based Evaluation (PhOEBE) PPI group to help disseminate the work of the 5-year NIHR programme.

Professor Graham Law’s talk entitled ‘Pushing at an open door: sleep research and people’ continued the theme of insomnia research at CaHRU, presenting work on the link between insomnia and disease and his wide engagement with the general public through his books, public lectures and research to raise awareness of the importance of insomnia and the myths surrounding sleep.

There were a number of other speakers from across the university whcih showed the extent and depth of public engagement with research at the university.

By Profs Graham Law and Niro Siriwardena