A joint blog by Georgia Copeland, Senior Engagement Officer and Teagan Allen, Policy Manager
Over the past year, we’ve been busy turning the commitments in our 2024 Community Survey Action Plan into action you can actually see and feel.
Your feedback shaped how we communicate, collaborate and open doors across the HRA Community. From amplifying voices to widening participation, here’s where we’ve made real progress.
The HRA Community includes Research Ethics Committee members, the Confidentiality Advisory Group, and members of the public who are involved in our work.
1. Elevating Community voices: a year of storytelling and visibility
We said we’d spotlight our Community and we did.
This year, we told more stories, in more ways, from more voices across the HRA Community. We published a growing series of member-led blogs and interviews, spanning everything from 38 years of REC experience to fresh perspectives from first-year REC members.
You took us behind the scenes of vital work too, including what it’s really like to review life-saving cervical screening research.
Alongside personal stories, we shared timely explainers on what we do and why it matters. From our response to national conversations on AI regulation in healthcare, to updates on information governance and research transparency.
We also tried new ways to connect. We hosted a highly attended research transparency webinar and created engaging social media carousels that helped key messages travel further.
The result - clearer communication, stronger connection and better visibility for the people who make our Community what it is.
2. Co-creating the 2025-2028 HRA Strategy: deep and meaningful involvement
Shaping the future – together.
This wasn’t consultation for show. It was co-creation.
When we committed to deeper involvement in shaping the 2025–2028 HRA Strategy, we meant it. Community members were embedded at every stage through workshops, surveys, committee discussions and hands-on roles in the project board, writing group and launch event.
This marked a real shift towards open, transparent collaboration. The final strategy was informed by lived experience from across the HRA Community.
3. Broadening who we listen to: a more accessible and inclusive approach
Listening wider, designing better.
We widened who we listen to and it’s changing how we work.
To build a more inclusive HRA Community, we focused on engaging voices that are often underrepresented. Over the past year, we worked directly with groups including:
These conversations gave us valuable insight into how we explain our role, how we design opportunities, and how we remove barriers to involvement.
This isn’t one-off engagement. It’s shaping how we communicate, how we invite participation and how we build a community that better reflects the people research is for.
Read more in the HRA Community Survey 2024 action plan progress report.
These examples show how seriously we take your feedback and how central your voices are to our progress.
As we move toward the 2026 Community Survey, our focus remains the same: making change to improve your experience with us, shaped by you.
Thank you for helping drive that change.
Becky Purvis, Director of Policy and Partnerships“Our community play a vital role in ensuring health and social care research is ethical, safe, and centred on participants. Without your expertise and time, we simply couldn’t do what we do. We want to make sure that you have the best possible experience when you work with us and that more people can choose to do so.
“Your feedback is very important to help us achieve this, which is why we now survey our Community every two years. This helps us to understand how satisfied you are with working with us, and the findings inform our plans for what we should continue to do and what we need to do differently, which also helps us create a better experience for everyone.
“I hope you can take the time to let us know how we are doing and what we can do differently by completing our 2026 survey. Your feedback means a lot to us and makes a real difference to the work that we do.”