There are a variety of reasons why you might not want to take part in a health and care research study. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t support health and care research.
How you can support research
Explore the exciting opportunities below to see how you can get involved without taking part in a study.
NIHR BioResource
Join the NIHR BioResource - a group of 250,000 adults and young people helping to accelerate disease diagnosis and develop new treatments.
Volunteering is quick and easy to do - just by providing genetic, clinical, and health and lifestyle information. You can volunteer whether or not you have a health condition.
Other UK research registries
If you’re interested in finding out about other research in the UK, you may wish to register with a regional, or more specialised registry service. By registering you could increase your chances of taking part in a study. The national registry service for England is Be Part of Research.
Sign up to Our Future Health
Our Future Health will be the UK’s largest ever health research programme, with up to 5 million volunteers. The aim is to help people live healthier lives for longer by preventing, detecting and treating diseases earlier.
Everyone over the age of 18 living in the UK is eligible to take part. If you sign up, you will have the chance to find out more about your own health, including your blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
Become a Research Champion
As a NIHR Research Champion, you will help spread the word about health and care research to the public.
Anyone can be a Champion. All you need is enthusiasm about health and care research and to be comfortable talking to people about it.
Many of our current Champions have previously taken part in studies. They use their experience to support potential research participants.
Discover the research areas matter most to people
The James Lind Alliance brings together patients, carers and clinicians. Together they aim to find unanswered questions so that research funders know the issues that matter most to people.
Volunteers help address any mismatches between what researchers want to research and the practical information required by patients and healthcare professionals.
Make our research summaries accessible to all
NIHR Evidence takes the results of NIHR-funded studies and summarises them in plain English. This helps ensure they’re easy to understand and accessible to all.
You can also help decide which research results should be shared on our NIHR Evidence website.
Take an online course
The NIHR has two free online courses for the public to learn more about health and care research. A great starting point if you want to expand your knowledge of health and care research.
You can learn more about both courses through the links below:
Help shape health and care research
The NIHR’s People in Research website promotes opportunities for people like you to get involved in shaping health and care research.
You’ll find a host of opportunities to get involved with. These include working with research funders, joining a project steering group or helping to develop materials for a research study.
Raise awareness with your friends and family
You can support health and care research simply by talking to your family or friends about ways they can get involved.
So be sure to tell them about this website and inspire them to take part and help shape the future of health and care.
You can also follow us on social media to get all the latest from Be Part of Research and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
X: Be Part of Research on X and NIHR Involvement on X
Facebook: NIHR Facebook
YouTube: NIHRtv YouTube
You can also sign up to our newsletter to keep to date with the latest health research news, opportunities and study findings.
Why taking part matters
Every day in the UK, someone receives a diagnosis for a disease or a health condition. The treatment, care and support they receive will be shaped by research. But to improve health and care for all of us, we need everyone to get involved.
Find out more about why taking part matters.
