Description Position Details College of Medicine and Health Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK Full time starting salary is normally in the range £36,636 to £46,049 with potential progression once in post to £48,822 Grade: 7 Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to August 2028 Closing date: 4th December 2025 Our offer to you People are at the heart of what we are and do. The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success. We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University. We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work. Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries. The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens. Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham Background The Involvement and Engagement Team is part of the Research Office within the College of Medicine and Health. Our team members benefit from the shared knowledge and expertise of the group, with support of an established network of existing of Public Involvement colleagues within the College. Staff also have strong working relationships with research teams whom they are supporting and often co-locate with the research team to ensure efficient public involvement support. The AI & Digital Health Research and Policy Group at the University of Birmingham brings together multidisciplinary expertise across clinical, academic, and regulatory domains to enable the safe and equitable adoption of artificial intelligence and digital technologies in health and care. The group leads nationally significant initiatives including the development of AI readiness tools for the NHS, the NIHR AI Incubator, and the Centre for Regulatory Science and Innovation for AI and Digital Health (CERSI-AI). Within this context, this post will support the delivery of the UKRI-funded “Screening and Diagnosis on the High Street: Unlocking the Potential of AI-enabled Oculomics in the Community” programme. ‘This is a project about how AI could be used to screen for common health conditions in the community. This specific AI technique is known as ‘oculomics’. It applies AI analysis to the sort of retinal photographs taken by opticians and enables common health conditions to be spotted early. For example we have shown that we can spot signs of Parkinson’s Disease on retinal scans seven years before it is picked up by standard approaches.’ This ambitious project aims to transform community health screening by combining advances in retinal imaging, artificial intelligence, and public engagement to enable earlier, fairer, and more accessible detection of disease. Public and patient involvement and engagement (PPIE) is central to this vision. Building on over 15 years of leadership in inclusive and transparent involvement in data-driven eye health and AI research, the project will embed co-creation and co-delivery throughout. The Public Involvement Manager will play a key role in leading these activities, ensuring that diverse patient and community voices shape the project’s design, implementation, and impact, and that health equity is embedded from inception through to delivery. The post holder will also contribute to the wider PPIE and community engagement agenda across the AI & Digital Health Research and Policy Group. Role Summary This post will work to embed public involvement in the Data and AI team by building, developing and maintaining excellent relationships with diverse groups of patients and carers, patient and carer organisations, third sector organisations, faith organisations, and other stakeholders in the local and national health and social care economy, as well as a wide range of industry, academic and clinical partners. Main Duties The post holder will lead all aspects of Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) for the AI-enabled oculomics project, ensuring the meaningful integration of public perspectives into research design, governance, and translation to real-world use. Working collaboratively with academic, clinical, and community partners, they will: Lead the delivery of the PPIE strategy for the oculomics project, embedding co-creation and co-delivery throughout all phases of research and implementation. Establish and coordinate a diverse public advisory group of approximately 15 core members, ensuring representation from communities affected by health inequalities and underserved groups. Develop and maintain strong partnerships with patient organisations, community groups, charities, and national networks to enhance inclusion and ensure engagement is culturally appropriate and accessible. Design, plan and deliver engagement and educational activities, including workshops, webinars, and community events, to support public understanding of AI in health and enable informed participation. Support public contributors through tailored learning resources, peer-to-peer networks, and practical arrangements, ensuring participation is supported and recognised in line with NIHR INVOLVE guidance. Coordinate “you said – we did” feedback mechanisms and maintain transparent communication channels with PPIE members and the wider community. Collaborate with project leads and researchers to integrate public input into dataset documentation, model development priorities, and community implementation approaches. Promote health equity by design, ensuring fairness specifications and subgroup evaluations reflect lived experience of inequality and the recommendations of STANDING Together. Plan, evaluate and report PPIE activities in alignment with UK Standards for Public Involvement and the PIRIT reporting tool. Contribute to the wider AI & Digital Health Group’s engagement work, supporting cross-project learning, sharing good practice, and developing approaches to inclusive innovation. Represent the project and group at relevant meetings, conferences, and stakeholder events, showcasing Birmingham’s leadership in equitable, patient-centred AI innovation. Ensure compliance with ethical, governance, and data protection standards in all PPIE activities. Promote equality, diversity and inclusion as a core value in all aspects of engagement and research. Coordinate the organisation of conferences/ meetings/ workshops/ dissemination events if required. Working in partnership with regional and national Public Involvement Leads from NIHR Centres and other key national stakeholders as part of the One NIHR Initiative. Facilitating the planning and delivery of engagement events and activities between local NIHR infrastructure and/or University of Birmingham and community organisations. Developing and maintaining close working relationships with colleagues at the University of Birmingham, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and in local NIHR infrastructures. Co-develop communications, events, collaborative approaches and other activities to promote patient and public involvement, as well as implementing and contributing to current and future initiatives from the NIHR and wider stakeholders in health and social care research around good practice in PPIE. Ensure that priorities are balanced, taking action to deliver agreed deliverables against timelines. Maintain an up to date knowledge of PPI management methodologies. Source, analyse and develop insights from the data to inform evaluation and review of projects. Promotes equality and values diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture. Developing initiatives/activities to increase the diversity of communities engaged and involved in health and care research. Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working. Any other duties commensurate with the grade. Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience First degree in relevant subject or equivalent experience. Proven knowledge and experience of managing public involvement and engagement in health and social care research. Familiarity and experience with UK Standards for Public Involvement to develop working practices relevant to PPIE. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to influence and negotiate effectively with a range of stakeholders. Proven ability to work as part of a team. Experience of designing and delivering public involvement and engagement events for a range of audiences. Excellent organisational and time-management skills to manage and deliver a range of initiatives and projects to tight deadlines. Flexible approach to working, including problem-solving skills, ability to adapt to unforeseen demands and a desire to develop skills and knowledge. Ability to write clearly for a range of outputs including reports, funding applications, websites and social media platforms. Excellent IT skills, including Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), the internet and social media. Awareness and ability to comply with data protection legislation for monitoring and evaluation purposes and ensure that all activity complies with these demands. Ability to deal with matters of a confidential or sensitive nature. Be able to work flexibly with occasional evenings and weekends. Willingness to travel within the region and to national meetings. Good understanding of key issues in public involvement, diversity and inclusion and relevant national policies and strategic documents. Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area. Informal enquiries to Lucy Oakey, email: l.a.oakey@bham.ac.uk View our staff values and behaviours here We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .