Principle 1: Involve the right people

Last updated on 8 Jul 2019

Applicants for HRA permissions are expected to involve those people who are the most relevant and appropriate to their study. This may mean patients, service users, carers or other advocates. In some cases this may be members of the general public who don’t have experience of the health condition being researched.

Who are the right people?


People with relevant lived experience of the health condition or social care situation being researched.

Usually this means people who have experienced it directly, such as patients and service users, but it may also mean carers of people with direct experience. 

In research which involves healthy volunteers, working with members of the public may be appropriate. 

It is important to work with people whose lived experience means they are likely to have a good idea of what will be acceptable to potential participants. 

People’s experience of a health condition or social care situation never happens in isolation from the rest of their lives; consider the other valuable experiences and skills that people have which may be relevant and important for your research. 

Use our resources page for advice on the practicalities of finding the right people to involve in your research, and for examples of how other researchers have approached this.


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