Taking part in research could include taking part in a clinical trial looking at a new drug or social research where researchers interview patients and carers about their experiences and feelings regarding their diagnosis and treatment.
Evidence suggests that, for some conditions, patients on research studies have better long term outcomes, and may also get earlier access to new drugs.
As well as participating in trials, patients and members of the public play an active role in our research groups, which continue to grow in number and evolve, and have helped us to identify ways of making research more appealing to volunteers.
We also need healthy volunteers who are fit and well and have no specified conditions to take part in the research studies in our hospitals.
Further information
The NIHR website has a collection of case studies from people whose lives have been changed by research.
There is also lots of helpful information about public involvement in health and social care research on the National Institute for Health Research’s (NIHR) INVOLVE website.
The People in research website is for researchers who want to find members of the public to get involved in their research.
The UK Clinical Trials Gateway helps give people the confidence to join clinical trials, by providing useful information about how trials work – while helping link them to researchers running trials they might be interested in.