Abstract: Poor recruitment and retention of participants is one of the major causes of clinical trial extension (both time and cost) and failure. It has been proposed that PPI could prevent or lessen this problem in clinical trials, but evidence to support this claim is currently weak. The PIRRIST project will develop and evaluate a PPI intervention aimed at enhancing recruitment and retention in surgical trials. We will present preliminary findings from stage 1 (a survey of current PPI practice in UK surgical trials) and stage 2 (focus groups with surgical trial staff and PPI contributors), and describe our plans for subsequent stages of the project.