The aim of implementation research is to transfer evidence-based interventions from research into practice. Successful transfer requires acceptance of the interventions by users and implementers. Research processes are increasingly focussing on participatory approaches in which various stakeholders are involved in research and implementation, thereby increasing the acceptability of interventions. Depending on the intervention, participation may draw from users, research, care providers or policy and funding bodies. Citizens and patients play a crucial role in participatory processes. Participatory implementation research is a collaborative approach that combines implementation research with the co-creation of knowledge by systematically involving participants in the research process and beyond. In this way, user-centred, tailor-made, lifeworld-oriented interventions in health promotion and healthcare can be scientifically developed under real-life conditions and permanently transferred into real-world practice. This review article examines the status of participatory implementation research in Germany and outlines the concepts and framework of participatory implementation research. To this end, projects from the fields of patient care, health promotion and the community setting are described. Two examples of the long-term participation of citizens of a neighbourhood in research conducted in the urban district laboratories in Bochum and Hamburg show how continuous participation and co-creation in implementation research for prevention, health promotion and health care can succeed.An English full-text version of this article is available at SpingerLink as Supplementary Information.