In this blog series, we will be featuring our award winners and highly commended recipients from the Faculty’s ‘Outstanding Contribution to PPIE’ awards. The awards showcase inspirational and outstanding commitment to PPIE that has made a positive difference to our community and highlights the amazing events, activities, people and groups from across the Faculty.    

Our latest blog in this series features Dr Grazyna (Grace) Lipowska-Bhalla, a lecturer in Cancer Biology who is committed to raising the profile of PPIE education. Grace was a winner in the Individual category at the 2025 PPIE Awards.   

Dr Grace Lipowska-Bhalla with her PPIE Award.

Dr Grace Lipowska-Bhalla began her PPIE journey when she became Programme Director of the MSc Molecular Pathology of Cancer course at the University. Recognising that meaningful impact starts with education, she has embedded PPIE principles into the curriculum, making them tangible and relevant for students. Her approach equips future healthcare professionals and researchers with the knowledge and confidence to apply PPIE effectively in diverse professional contexts, fostering sustainable engagement practices that begin in the classroom and extend into the real world.  

To bring PPIE to life, Grace works closely with partners including the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), Vocal, Healthy Me Healthy Communities (HMHC), and the Wai Yin Society. Through these collaborations, she introduces real-world examples into her teaching, illustrating how PPIE can: 

• Involve local communities in shaping research and healthcare priorities. 
• Engage ethnic minority groups to identify and overcome barriers to cancer screening. 
• Collaborate with the LGBTQIA+ community to inform more inclusive cancer screening methods. 

Through a partnership with Prevent Breast Cancer, Grace also created opportunities for students to connect directly with people affected by cancer. She has facilitated sessions where students meet patients and hear their experiences first-hand, building empathy and deepening their understanding of patient-centred care. 

The students’ reflections powerfully capture the value of this engagement. They described this experience as “the most impactful” and “much more powerful learning than from a textbook” noting that it helped them “better visualize the process patients go through” and “think about other than medical aspects of cancer diagnosis such as impact on quality of life and on family.” 

Beyond her teaching, Grace contributes to the Faculty’s PPIE Forum and the Divisional PPIE group, helping shape PPIE strategy, education and training. She actively promotes opportunities for postgraduate students to take part in engagement activities, embedding these principles across the wider academic community. 

The impact of her work reaches far beyond Manchester. Over the past two years, Grace has delivered PPIE education to more than 30 postgraduate students, both on campus and online, representing over a dozen countries across three continents. Around a quarter of these learners come from regions where PPIE is still emerging, such as Uganda, Kenya and Ghana. By equipping healthcare professionals in these areas with practical knowledge and tools, Grace is helping to spark a ripple effect that could transform PPIE in health systems worldwide. 

Additional information: 

• SU Academic Award – Inclusive and Accessible Teaching Practice – Highly Commended 
• Cancer & Us: Community Conversations – case study developed in collaboration between NIHR BRC, Vocal and HMHC 

To find out more about PPIE: watch our short film, sign up to the monthly Public Engagement Digest, visit the PPIE blog, or contact srbmh@manchester.ac.uk.       

To read more about other PPIE Award winners visit here. 

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