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Trinity PPI Ignite Festival Fund

The 2023 application deadline for the Festival Fund has now passed.

This fund, established by the Trinity PPI Ignite Office, is for researchers who wish to organise an event as part of the national PPI Ignite Festival. The fund will cover expenses such as venue hire, refreshments, design and print and will be awarded following a competitive process.

Trinity PPI Ignite Office is part of the national PPI Ignite Network. Funded by the Health Research Board, the Irish Research Council and member institutions, the Network promotes excellence and inspires innovation in PPI. In 2022, the Network launched the inaugural PPI Ignite Festival. With more than 40 events running across the country, the festival reached an estimated 1,900 participants. As part of the 2022 festival, Trinity ran a national event, launching the PPI Ignite Network Values and Principles Framework, which is designed to promote excellence in PPI activity nationally. The framework was co-designed with PPI contributors and researchers from across the country and forms the cornerstone for Quality Improvement in the national network.

Also, with Trinity School of Medicine, Trinity PPI Ignite Office ran four events covering topics such as ADHD, depression, Down syndrome and the Central Mental Hospital. These events brought together researchers with people who have a lived experience, providing an opportunity to form and to build links that can lead to future relationships and future funded studies.

The Festival Fund is a small grant that will be awarded by the Trinity PPI Ignite Office to a current Trinity researcher (staff member or doctoral candidate) to begin or build a PPI relationship, through the creation and delivery of an event for the PPI Ignite Festival in October 2023. The event may be organised to attract PPI contributors or to provide capacity-building activities that PPI contributors and researchers can share. The recipients of the fund will also get two mentoring sessions from the PPI Ignite Office and the results of the activity will form a case study for the PPI Ignite Office and shared with the Health Research Board and the Irish Research Council.

The maximum funding will be €1,500 per award and the Trinity PPI Ignite Office intends to provide two awards each year. Appropriate costs may include refreshments and catering, design and print, creating accessible information, venue hire, covering vouched expenses for PPI contributor travel and accommodation, equipment hire, facilitators hire, interpreters hire, software or equipment costs. All costs must either be for the event itself or incurred in activities that were required in advance of the event, such as advertising or convening planning meetings.

Successful proposals will need to spend the Fund in line with Trinity policies and procedures, including procurement rules. Where a successful candidate is not a Trinity employee, the Fund will be spent by Trinity PPI Ignite Office under the instruction of the successful applicant.

The event must take place during the festival period (Monday, 9th October 2023 to Sunday, 22nd October 2023). Particular interest will be given to projects that are proposing to engage with groups that are traditionally not involved in research or projects where there is a clear effort to ensure equity, diversity and inclusion when engaging.

The fund is also interested in activities that it deems to be novel or which take an innovative approach in line with what would be appropriate as part of a festival.

All activities must be completed with a report submitted to the Trinity PPI Ignite Office by the end of 2023. Projects that are realistically budgeted with appropriate timelines will be more favourably reviewed. Also, those that can show either cash or in-kind co-funding or support will also be favourably considered.

Read the Guidance Document on the Festival Fund.

Fill out the Application Form for the Festival Fund.