Our NCRF group for patients, public and carers provides an opportunity for you to share your informed unique opinions and help shape the work of the NIHR Newcastle CRF.

You can direct our research priorities, provide feedback on patient/public/carer needs, concerns and interests to help set research priorities as well assisting researchers by advising on research proposal ideas and reviewing literature and advising on effective engagement with research participants and the wider public.

If you are interested in finding out more about how you could be involved in our work, visit the section on our NCRF PPIE Group

There are many other opportunities for you to share your knowledge and influence how health research is designed. The below involvement opportunities include:

• Multiverse Lab is a digital project created by Unfolding Theatre, designed to gather the opinions of 2,000 people in the North East of England, finding what matters to local people when it comes to their health. Visitors are encouraged to add their voice by recording a message that will be shared with researchers and decision-makers to shape the future health research priorities in the region.

• VOICE is a unique organisation, comprising a large network of citizens across the UK and internationally. Members can join a platform where they are able to contribute immense insights, experience, ideas and vision to identify unmet needs and opportunities, to drive innovation on ageing and improve health research.

• APEX (Advising on the Patient Experience) provide advice to Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. This is an opportunity to give a patient, carer and public perspective, and actively participate in working with the Trust to bring about quality improvements for patients.

• RDS NENC Public Involvement Consumer Panel comprises members of the public with health concerns, carer duties or who have a general interest in health and social care matters. The panel members are able to assist researchers with the provision of online feedback on their research projects.

• Research Champions are patients, carers, members of the public, people who have taken part in a research study before, as well as those who haven’t. Something that they all have in common is that they are passionate about getting more people involved in research so that we can develop better care and treatment for everyone.

There are a number of different ways to find out about research and clinical trials that you may be interested in taking part in. The below list includes opportunities to participate in relevant studies taking place in the UK:

• Research + Me Registry is based at NIHR Patient Recruitment Centre, Newcastle, the UK’s first clinical trials facility in the NHS to specialise in late phase (phase 3 or 4) commercial trials. By joining the registry you are giving us authority to let you know about any research that you may wish to volunteer for. You are not agreeing to take part in any trials at this point; just to hear about any that are available.

• Patient Recruitment Centre (PRC): Newcastle is part of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which is committed to providing the best possible care for patients and the local community. You can find out what studies are currently underway at PRC: Newcastle and learn about upcoming studies by visiting here.

• Newcastle BioResource is a partnership of volunteers, researchers, clinicians and others in hospitals, charities, patient groups, universities and companies, working together to search for the causes of disease and for new treatments. Everyone who volunteers contributes to the search for better diagnoses and treatment. Without willing members and research study participants, research cannot progress. By joining the BioResource, you can play an important part in making medicine better.

• Be Part of Research is an online service that allows people to search for research studies by inputting a disease, drug name or location. Additionally, it helps members of the public to understand more about the research that is taking place nationally and what it means to take part.

• *ISRCTN Registry is a recognised primary clinical trial registry that accepts all clinical research studies (whether proposed, ongoing or completed), providing content validation and curation and the unique identification number necessary for publication. All study records in the database are freely accessible and searchable.

• *clinicaltrials.gov is a database of privately and publicly funded clinical studies occurring around the world which provides information about clinical trials to patients, family members, health care professionals, researchers, and the larger public.

*also contain studies taking place in other countries.