Our role in the CaSE public dialogue report

It’s not often that I use the words excitement and joy to describe the publication of a new report, but I really was thrilled to read the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE)’s report on their public dialogue, People’s Vision for Research and Development (R&D). We took part in workshops to support the development of the dialogue, which set out to explore how people feel about increased opportunities for public decision making and involvement in R&D.

An interesting initial finding, which matches that of our Think Ethics Public Dialogue from 2022, was that people's opinions towards research evolved and improved during the process of the dialogue as a result of their positive experiences of being involved in the dialogue itself, and from learning more about the range of ways that the public can be involved in research. The observation that the interest and enthusiasm of the participants grew throughout the deliberations, illustrated that emotional connections can be strengthened through the opportunity to learn more about and reflect on research, and involvement in it.

This also matches the finding from our public perception of research survey, which found that most UK adults are more likely to participate in a study where members of the public ensure that participant information is easily understood (55%) and research findings are accessible (54%).

Before moving on to the great recommendations that have been developed as a result of this dialogue, it is really important to stop and reflect on the significant impact that involvement can have on people's perceptions of research, and to acknowledge that the simple act of involving people in this work moved their feelings from distrust and largely ambivalent about research to feeling largely positive with no ambivalence .

The four main principles developed across the dialogue address the following questions:

• what is involvement for?
• what do people need to know?
• who needs to be involved?
• how should involvement feel?

Reading the recommendations gives me a warm fuzzy feeling as it reinforces the guidance that we have been developing and sharing, from our Best Practice Principles, our Hallmarks of People Centred Clinical Research, our work with the growing number of partners of the Shared Commitment to Public Involvement and our work to develop inclusion and Diversity guidance for researchers.

But the most important of all of these, is how involvement should feel. We need to make sure most of all, that public involvement in research should ensure that people feel safe, heard, and invested in the research

Our role

It was great to being involved in the public dialogue workshops, which were held with representatives from across the R&D sector, and also by being part of the expert group that provided advice to CaSE as they designed , delivered and reported their public dialogue.

It’s incredibly heartening to see work happening across the R&D sector to build the public’s relationship with research. Being asked to contribute to CaSE’s public dialogue reinforces the importance of the work we’ve been doing to engage with the public as part of the include pillar of our strategy. It is always great to see organisations coming together, collaboration is crucial, and allows us to learn from one another and share best practices, which benefits everyone. For both our public dialogue and public attitudes survey we used expert groups made up of different voices, including CaSE and members of our Public Involvement Network.

At the HRA, we’re committed to improving public trust, and seeing similar themes from our own work with the findings of CaSE’s public dialogue shows that the drive for increasing public interest and involvement in research should be a shared goal, to make sure people can not only be aware of research but feel confident in it and its results.