Get involved in health research

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    Research improves the health and social care provided by the NHS and others. Advancing medicine to find new cures and better treatments for future generations. It also helps to improve diagnosis, prevention and quality of life for everyone. In some cases it can change lives, or even save lives.

    How to get involved in health research

    There are lots of ways you can get involved in their health and care research. Patients, carers and the public can get involved in:

    • giving your thoughts and opinions
    • helping develop research materials
    • identifying new research topics that are relevant to patients, carers and members of the public
    • making sure that researchers ask the right questions in a way that the public understand

    Research+Me is a research registry ran by Newcastle Hospitals. Anyone over the age of 18 can sign up, including healthy volunteers and people with certain conditions.  To register, fill in a few details and the research team will be in touch if a suitable study comes up. You can then decide if you’d like to take part.

    Be Part of Research is a national register to help you find out about health and social care research taking place in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It’s a free service which makes it easy to find and take part in vital health and care research across the UK. Simply tell them which health conditions you’re interested in. They’ll match you to suitable studies and send you information on how to take part.

    National Institute for Health and Care Research Clinical Research Delivery Centre (NIHR CRDC) is based at the RVI. It aims to give more people access to the latest clinical trials and treatments, reaching people in the community who otherwise might not consider taking part in research.

    NIHR BioResource allows you to donate a blood sample and get matched into research studies based on variations in your DNA, health and lifestyle information, your age, gender or ethnicity. If you’re an inpatient or outpatient at one of the trust’s hospitals, your clinical team might talk to you about the opportunity to take part in health research.

    Voice is an organisation that supports a range of health and technology research activities and requires volunteers who have an interest in ageing.

    PaCT Lab at Northumbria University are interested in understanding how people use technology and have a special interest in how older users engage with e-health technologies, cyber security systems, and digital privacy controls.

    National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network North East and North Cumbria work to improve health and care outcomes for the people of the North East and North Cumbria through research. There are lots of ways to get involved in their health and care research. Patients, carers and the public can get involved in:

    Dementia research

    NE-DeNDRoN is a local network of clinicians who conduct research into dementia and other related conditions

    Alzheimer’s Research UK want to find a cure and identify which diseases lead to dementia

    Join Dementia Research offers you the opportunity to be matched with a research/study connecting you to researchers both online and face to face. You don’t have to have dementia to take part.

    Lots of charities need people to support their research.  From Parkinson’s UK to the MND Association, Versus Arthritis to Blood Cancer UK.  Get in touch if you want to help.

    Have your say about health and care services

    You can help to improve our health services. You can volunteer to take part in groups or forums to make sure the views of patients, carers and the public are heard. Your feedback is used to improve health services in the North East of England.

    Find out more about how to have your say about health and care services on InformationNOW.

    Volunteering in Newcastle

    Volunteering is where you offer your time and skills for free to a charity, organisation or an individual who is not a member of your family or a friend.

    Volunteering can be a hugely rewarding experience. Not only will you be giving your time to doing something useful, you can meet new people, learn new skills and hopefully have fun as well!

    Read more about how to get involved in volunteering on InformationNOW.

    Last updated: August 20, 2025