Public involvement in research applications to the National Research Ethics Service

2014: Comparative analysis of 2010 and 2012 data.

This is the second report of a joint INVOLVE and Health Research Authority (HRA) project to provide baseline data on public involvement in applications to the National Research Ethics Service (NRES). This report compares 2010 and 2012 responses to the public involvement question in the ethics application form.

The recommendations in the report focus on how Research Ethics Committees and funders can raise researchers’ awareness of the importance of public involvement in their research as well as help to improve their understanding of public involvement and how it differs from engagement.

Non-commercial (e.g National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), medical research charities and research councils) and commercially funded (e.g. pharmaceutical companies) studies are analysed separately to more accurately reflect the different patterns of responses to the public involvement question by type of funder. For non-commercially funded studies applying for ethics approval the findings show an increase in public involvement in 2012 from those in 2010 whereas commercial studies show little change in the scale of their involvement activities.

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