Nottingham Hearing BioResource
Research type
Research Database
IRAS ID
339869
Contact name
Ian M. Wiggins
Contact email
Research summary
Nottingham Hearing BioResource
REC name
South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/SW/0019
Date of REC Opinion
25 Mar 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion
Data collection arrangements
The following types of data will be, or may in future be, stored in the Nottingham Hearing BioResource:
- personal identifiers and contact details, including name, date of birth, NHS number, postcode, and email address
- characteristics, such as sex, gender, ethnicity, and occupation
- health and lifestyle data, such as history of disease, smoking habits and alcohol intake
- information from Audiology clinic appointments, such as hearing test results and hearing aid fittings
- answers to questionnaires about different aspects of hearing health, for example, how hearing loss affects daily life
- results from the analysis of biological samples, such as stress hormone levels in hair
- the results from tests designed to measure the health of different parts of the ear and hearing accuracy
- results from tests measuring other aspects of health, such as sight
- brain scan images.Data will be collected from adult volunteers who have provided informed consent; with hearing loss or other hearing conditions, or with no hearing issues as a control population. Hearing test results will be taken from health records with the volunteer’s permission. Other data, listed above, will be collected at in-person research appointments.
Research programme
Hearing loss is estimated to affect around 1.5 billion people globally. Hearing loss impacts a person’s ability to communicate effectively, worsening quality of life, and increasing the risk of social isolation. Currently, there are no treatments available that can restore hearing. Research is urgently needed to address the challenges presented by hearing loss, tinnitus, and other hearing-related conditions, and to develop new treatments. A large-scale hearing-focused bioresource will help accelerate this research: providing a database of research-willing volunteers and the results of comprehensive tests of hearing and ear health repeated over time. The volunteers and data in the bioresource will be made available to other researchers to carry out their own research, following an assessment of the research proposal by a panel made up of experts, patients, and the general public. Research using the bioresource may be from any area of health, but it is likely that project proposals will mainly be from researchers working in ear and hearing fields, and related areas such as aging. The types of research potentially enabled by the bioresource are varied, from understanding how damage to a particular part of the ear can cause a condition, to running clinical trials of new treatments.
Research database title
Nottingham Hearing BioResource
Establishment organisation
University of Nottingham
Establishment organisation address
University Park
Nottingham
NG7 2RD