We have established a Citizen Patient Advisory Group (CPAG) to ensure that public voices are heard. The 11 members were selected through an open call and interviews. The group helps us understand the real-world impact of our project and provides advice on how to make health financing more effective and fair by also involving citizens’ views.
CPAG is now actively engaged in several key areas of the project. Below are a few concrete examples of their involvement:
Contributing to the Competence building programme for new testbeds
Two CPAG colleagues are participating in the competence-building programme to help represent citizen perspectives as new test beds are established across Europe. Their role is to provide recommendations based on public values and real-world needs. This includes helping identify relevant networks and advising on which stakeholders should be engaged to ensure inclusive input into test bed activities. Their contributions aim to make sure citizen perspectives are not only heard but strategically integrated into the development process from the beginning.
Supporting the creation of lay summaries
One of the CPAG’s important tasks is to support the development of lay summaries for complex project concepts such as Smart Capacity Investment (SCI). These summaries help translate technical terms into accessible language for various audiences, policy-makers, local communities, and the general public.
Thanks to their lived experience and diverse backgrounds, CPAG members are ideally positioned to act as bridges between researchers and professional experts on the one hand, and people who may not be familiar with public health, investment modelling, or financial planning on the other. In today’s fast-paced, information-heavy world, using clear, user-friendly communication is more essential than ever.
Their involvement extends beyond drafting written summaries; CPAG also advises the consortium on which project outputs are most relevant to translate into lay summaries. This ensures that the most meaningful and high-impact aspects of the project are shared in ways that are understandable, inclusive, and useful.
Shaping the Co-Governance platform for citizen participation
CPAG members are directly contributing to the development of the project’s co-governance platform, one of the six core objectives of Invest4Health. This work focuses on designing collaborative structures that support real citizen influence in decision-making on health promotion and disease prevention.
During a recent workshop, participants emphasised that co-governance must go beyond symbolic participation. As one speaker stated, “This isn’t about consultation. It’s about co-decision-making, a real seat at the table.”
Key points discussed included:
- Citizens must have equal influence as professionals, payers, and investors
- The platform should support education, communication, evaluation, and two-way feedback loops
- Lay participants should retain their lived perspective and not be “quasi-professionalised”
- Data must be collected and used transparently to maintain trust and show impact
Use cases are now being developed to explore how citizens can help design governance structures and even influence funding decisions for population-level missions, such as diabetes prevention or youth health. CPAG’s role in this process is central, ensuring that citizen priorities are built into the foundations of the system.
Representing CPAG at the European Public Health Conference
Later this year in November, CPAG will be represented at the Invest4Health workshop at the European Public Health Conference, a key international event for professionals and policymakers in the field. This is a crucial moment not only to present the project’s aims and objectives but also to showcase the CPAG’s contribution and the significance of meaningful citizen and patient representation in health innovation.
Our goals
What we want to achieve is that the Citizen Patient Advisory Group becomes more than a consultative body for Invest4Health. We want CPAG to become an essential part of how Invest4Health places the voices and perspectives of both the general public and patients at the centre of innovation in health financing. Their insights shape how we define priorities, design tools, and deliver outputs and outcomes that are not only technically sound but user-friendly, socially relevant and inclusive.
