About Be Part of Research
Be Part of Research provides information on taking part in research and enables the public to find research opportunities across the UK.
It is run by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Research Delivery Network Coordinating Centre (RDNCC) in collaboration with:
- NHS England
- Health and Social Care Northern Ireland
- NHS Research Scotland
- Health and Care Research Wales
The NIHR RDNCC is a service provided by the University of Leeds, with contracted maintenance by PA Consulting Services Limited.
The RDNCC manages Be Part of Research on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
Read more detailed information about the RDN and how it operates.
Purpose of this notice
Be Part of Research is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. As a user of this service, this privacy notice informs you about:
- what information we collect when you visit the service
- how we store and use your information
- whether your information is shared
- how we protect your privacy
Important roles
Data controller
A data controller decides why and how personal data is processed.
The DHSC is the Data Controller for the Be Part of Research site under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (Data Protection Laws).
Data processor
A data processor processes personal data on behalf of the controller.
The NIHR RDNCC, provided by University of Leeds, is the data processor for the Be Part of Research service.
Information we collect
Cookies
Be Part of Research uses cookies to store some of your information. We do this to improve our ability to provide you with a better service.
You can read more about what cookies are and how we use them.
When you access the site and navigate through it, the only data we collect include:
- cookie IDs
- IP address or device identifier information - to enable investigation of issues such as malicious use
- navigation data - how you move around the site and hyperlinks you click on
- the website that linked you to Be Part of Research (if applicable)
Google Analytics and Hotjar
We use Google Analytics and Hotjar cookies to measure how you use Be Part of Research. We do this by monitoring information such as time spent on a particular page and the links you click. Monitoring such information allows us to better understand users’ needs, which helps us optimise this service and experience.
You can also read Google’s Privacy Disclosures Policy and Hotjar’s privacy policy.
ServiceNow
When you complete the ‘Get in Touch’ form, or you email bepartofresearch@nihr.ac.uk to seek help or send comments about the Be Part of Research website, we will respond to your queries through the ServiceNow contact management platform.
ServiceNow securely stores the queries that are sent to the service. All data is stored in the UK. For further information, refer to the ServiceNow privacy policy.
Personal information
To make full use of this service, we will ask you to provide us with your personal information at different stages. Some of the information asked is optional to answer. Providing more detailed information about yourself, will help us match you with studies that are relevant to you.
Personal information that we require would include your:
- first and last name
- email address
- date of birth
- postal address
- telephone number
- sex at birth
- gender identity
- ethnic group and background
- conditions (if any) and whether you consider yourself to have a disability
The different stages where you will be asked to provide personal information include:
- registration
- profile creation
- account verification
- multifactor authentication (for added security for your account)
NHS login
If you use NHS login to create an account or sign into your account, we will be provided with some of your information from your NHS account. We will link to your unique NHS login ID in order to verify your information.
If you access our service using your NHS login details, the identity verification services are managed by NHS England. For further information, read NHS England's privacy notice and terms and conditions.
How and why we use your data
If you register for an account with Be Part of Research, we will use your personal information primarily to:
- identify and contact you about research opportunities that may be of interest to you
- contact you to ensure you are getting the best out of the service
- contact you to seek feedback on how we can improve the service
- contact you to ask if you would like to discuss sharing your story or experience of taking part in health and care research
- contact you with updates about research you may have taken part in and acknowledge your participation
- inform you about changes that impact our service and policies
- share updates about the Be Part of Research service
- identify inactive accounts and ask you to update your information
- ensure the security of your account
The lawful basis for processing
According to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Data Protection Act 2018, we must have valid lawful bases for processing personal data.
Processing your personal data is necessary for us to deliver the BPoR service, a task in the public interest. Our lawful basis for processing your personal data is public interest. We want to ensure that we enable and deliver world leading health and social care research. This research would improve people’s health and wellbeing, and would promote economic growth. For processing your health related data, our lawful basis is substantial public interest and research purposes.
How we share your personal information
General/Everyone
Be Part of Research links to third-party sites and does not control the way these sites may collect and use your information.
The Be Part of Research website is hosted on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform. It is a cloud-based software platform which provides disaster recovery processes across its servers. These servers are all located within the European Economic Area (EEA) or the UK.
Amazon Cognito is the service within AWS used to create an account to Be Part of Research; you can find out more information on AWS platform privacy policy.
The Be Part of Research platform is accredited to ISO 27001 security standards.
Sharing your information with third parties
We will share your data if we are required to do so by law (for example, by court order, or to prevent fraud or other crime), or if you have given explicit permission to do so.
We will not:
- sell or rent your data to third parties
- share your data with third parties for marketing purposes
Sometimes we ask third parties, including suppliers and partners, to carry out business functions for us such as maintaining and backing up our IT systems’ software, or providing a data analytics platform. All such organisations are either contractually obliged or have signed an agreement, which does not allow them to share your data with other non-authorised third parties and provides for the secure disposal of this data.
Emails and Newsletters
Mailchimp - Our email newsletters sign ups are processed and stored electronically via Mailchimp in the USA. Please see Mailchimp Privacy FAQs for further information on how your data is processed and protected. Data processed and stored with Mailchimp is never sold to third parties. You have the opportunity to unsubscribe to the newsletter at any time.
GOV.UK Notify - We use GOV.UK Notify to contact you about:
- account maintenance
- changes to the service
- updates or amendments to the privacy policy
- research opportunities that you may be interested in
Data is only held within GOV.UK Notify systems for a period of 7 days for each email sent and is encrypted. For further information on how your data is processed and protected, visit GOV.UK Notify’s security features.
Registration and account creation
Once you register for an account with Be Part of Research, your data is viewable by the Be Part of Research staff who administer the service. Your personal data will still be stored within our secure system.
Matching you with studies
If a study is identified that may be of interest to you, we will contact you with details of the study. This will include information about the study and how to contact the study team. It is your choice whether you choose to share further information with the research study team.
Taking part in a study
If you agree to join a study, the research study team will contact you with regard to entering your data onto their research system. These research systems are not part of the Be Part of Research system, and you will need to provide further consent for them to continue.
Study teams will advise Be Part of Research, of which users from our registry go on to enrol in their study. This is important for service improvement and to ensure that service users are not further contacted about studies they may no longer be eligible for.
Maintaining data accuracy and currency
We ask you to keep your information up to date by signing in to your account and making sure your personal information is accurate. By doing this, we are better able to ensure that communications with you will continue to be relevant. We also send you periodic emails reminding you to do this.
How we store and protect your personal information
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. The security of Be Part of Research is managed by the NIHR Information Systems Function, on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The Function has the appropriate technical expertise to protect against unlawful processing and/or accidental loss of information.
We use leading technologies and encryption software to safeguard your data and will ensure only authorised users can see your data, and maintain strict security standards to prevent any unauthorised access to it.
The NIHR RDNCC has both ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials certifications; both schemes set high standards for information and cybersecurity, against which NIHR RDNCC is audited annually.
How long we store your personal information for
We will hold your personal information for:
- as long as we are providing you with services via Be Part of Research
- as long as you agree to this
The following principles for data storage will apply across the service:
- We only store data that is necessary for the specific purpose(s).
- Data will be held digitally rather than in paper record form wherever possible.
- We will not store your data for longer than is necessary for the intended purpose or as required by law.
- Your data will be securely deleted when no longer needed for the purpose(s).
- This services falls within the scope of NIHR RDNCC's ISO27001:2022 and Cyber Essentials certifications.
- When an electronic file containing personal identifiable information (e.g. a complaints file) is no longer required it is securely deleted by overwriting the space several times with selected patterns, thus rendering any information unreadable.
- If you choose to close your account, Be Part of Research will only keep anonymous data to help improve the service.
We have specific, defined data retention periods for different data types, which are determined by legal and operational considerations.
Withdrawing your consent
You have the right to withdraw your consent for us to contact you, store and process your data, and share your data with site teams at any time.
If you wish to withdraw your consent, you can do this by closing your account. You do not have to provide any explanation for doing so.
If you choose to close your account, Be Part of Research will only keep anonymous data to help us improve the service. This would include date of registration and account closure, date of birth, postcode, sex and health conditions. We will remove all of your personal data including your name, email address, home address and phone numbers.
Your rights over your personal data
Details of the Data Protection Officer for the RDNCC:
Name: Lee Cramp
Address: Department of Health and Social Care, First Floor North, 39 Victoria Street, Westminster, London, SW1H 0EU
Email: data_protection@dhsc.gov.uk
As a data subject, you may have the following rights under the Data Protection Laws:
- the right of access to personal data relating to you
- the right to correct any mistakes in your information
- the right to ask us to stop contacting you with direct marketing
- rights in relation to automated decision-making
- the right to restrict or prevent your personal data being processed
- the right to withdraw consent
These individual rights are explained on the Information Commissioner's Office website.
If you wish to exercise any of your data subject rights, you contact the NIHR Service Desk. You can do so by:
- writing to - The NIHR Service Desk, Back Lane, Melbourn, Royston, SG8 6DP
- emailing to - gdpr_requests@nihr.ac.uk
We will respond in a timely manner to any rights that you wish to exercise, and for Subject Access Requests (SARs) this has to be within a month of receiving your request unless the request is particularly complex.
Contacting the regulator
It is important that you ensure you have read this privacy notice - and if you do not think that we have processed your data in accordance with this privacy notice - you should let us know as soon as possible.
You may also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.
Changes to this notice
We may change this privacy notice from time to time, so please check back periodically. If we make a significant change, we will highlight this clearly when you log in to your account or inform you by email so that you are updated on what has changed.
This notice was last updated on 26/01/2026.
