How many public contributors should I have?

There is no ‘one size fits all’ for involvement. Patient and public involvement has to be appropriate for the setting of your study and the resources available. It is important that you aim for representatively when you work with multiple contributors, i.e. different lived experiences or profile, so various views are included in your study.

In any activity you should intend to have at least 2 public contributors to be able to hear more varied feedback. Additionally can the public contributors support each other and learn from each other. As public contributors volunteer their time, it can happen that a public contributor has to decrease or withdraw from their involvement activities due to professional or personal circumstances. Having multiple contributors increases the chances that involvement remains possible for your study.