Our commitment to improve patient and public involvement

Public involvement is important, expected, and possible in all types of research

Cancer Research UK has been working with The Health Research Authority, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and a host of organisations across the UK to bring about changes that will drive up health and social care research standards. Together we've signed up to a Shared Commitment to public involvement.

Cancer Research UK is committed to driving up standards in health and social care research and believes excellent patient involvement is inclusive, values all contributions, and ensures people affected by cancer have a say in what happens.

Together, our organisations and members fund, support and regulate health and social care research. This statement is our joint commitment to improve the extent and quality of public involvement across the sector so that it is consistently excellent.

People have the right to be involved in all health and social care research. Excellent public involvement is an essential part of health and social care research and has been shown to improve its quality and impact. People’s lived experiences should be a key driver for health and social care research.

When we talk about public involvement, we mean all the ways in which the research community works together with people including patients, carers, advocates, service users, and members of the community. Excellent public involvement is inclusive, values all contributions, ensures people have a meaningful say in what happens and influences outcomes, as set out in the UK Standards for Public Involvement.

Working together we will support the research community to carry out excellent public involvement.  We will provide or share guidance, policies, systems, and incentives. We will

• listen to and learn from the people and communities we involve and apply and share that learning
• build and share the evidence of how to involve the public and the impact this has
• support improvements in equality, diversity, and inclusion in public involvement
• promote the UK Standards for Public Involvement