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Frequently Asked Questions
Below are listed some of the questions frequently
asked by researchers and members of the public who
are interested in service user involvement in
research.
Click on each section below to expand and view answers.
1. To what extent should I involve the public
in R&D?
There are three basic levels of involving people
who use services in R&D - consultation,
collaboration and user control - which are really on
a continuum of involvement.
There is a role for each of these levels of
involvement within health and social care R&D. It is
important that you are clear about which level of
involvement you are seeking from people you want to
involve.
•
Consultation - When you consult people who
use services about research, you ask them for their
views and use these views to inform your
decision-making. For example, you might hold one-off
meetings with people who use services to ask them
for their views on a research proposal. You will not
necessarily adopt those people's views, but you may
be influenced by them.
•
Collaboration - Collaboration involves
active, on-going partnership with members of the
public in the R&D process. For example, people who
user services might take part in a steering
committee for a research project, or collaborate
with researchers to design, undertake and/or
disseminate the results of a research project.
•
User control - User-controlled research might
be broadly interpreted as research where the focus
of power, initiative and subsequent decision making
is with service users rather than with the
professional researchers. It does not mean that
service users undertake every stage of the research,
or that 'professional' researchers are necessarily
excluded from the process altogether.
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2. Which level of involvement is best?
There is no single right answer to this question.
Different types of involvement will be most
appropriate for different research projects. This
will depend on the researchers, the people you wish
to involve, the research topic and method and the
requirements of the funding body. In any single
research project, you might consult and collaborate
with people who use services, or they might lead at
different stages of the project.
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