Members of the public are getting involved and fulfilling crucial roles throughout the whole research process.

There are many different kinds of health and social care research taking place in the UK and worldwide. Broadly, health research aims to find out more about health issues such as causes of ill health or the effects of new treatment. Social care research is about social care needs such as everyday support for disabled people, vulnerable children and older people.

If you decide that you would like to get involved in research these are some of the things that you might be asked to do:

• help select research that is important and relevant
• help researchers design their projects
• help develop understandable information sheets for people taking part in research
• join a research management or advisory group
• train to carry out some of the research (for example interviews)
• help interpret the results of the research
• help make sure the research is reported in understandable ways
• help make sure good research is heard about.

Some of the ways that members of the public make a difference to health and social care research are by:

• making sure that researchers ask the right questions and in a way that the public understand
• keeping the research on track so that it stays relevant
• making sure the people being researched are approached in the right way
• improving the quality of the research by adding another point of view to the design and conduct.