R & D
Research and Development, which covers both ‘basic’ (pre-clinical,) research and clinical research, as well as research into improving existing treatments, service delivery and user experience.
Randomised controlled trial (RCT)
A controlled trial compares two groups of people: an experimental group who receive the new treatment and a control group, who receive the usual treatment or a placebo. The control group allows the researchers to see whether the treatment they are testing is any more or less effective than the usual or standard treatment. In a randomised controlled trial, the decision about which group a person joins is random (i.e. based on chance). A computer will decide rather than the researcher or the participant. Randomisation ensures that the two groups are as similar as possible, except for the treatment they receive. This is important because it means that the researcher can be sure that any differences between the groups are only due to the treatment.
Representative
Representatives speak or act on behalf of a larger group of people. If you’ve been asked to get involved in research as a representative of a particular group, you may want to think about how you can be confident that you are representing a range of people’s views in addition to your own perspective.
Research Ethics Committee
Ethics committees are made up of professionals and service users who consider the ethical implications of the proposed research protocol and its potential outcomes. Such committees typically include active or retired researchers, legal and philosophical experts and ‘lay’ members (members of the public). If the committee has ethical concerns about the proposal (for example, if they believe the research may cause avoidable harm, seeks to test an unjustifiable treatment or unfairly favours or disadvantages one group over another) then they may not approve it and it cannot be funded. In this instance, if the concerns are minor, the researchers may be given the opportunity to amend or clarify the proposal, or it may be rejected all together.
Research governance
Research governance is a process that oversees research to ensure it is high quality, safe and ethical. The Department of Health has a Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care, which everyone involved in research within the NHS or social services must follow.
Research grant
A sum of money awarded to a research professional, group or institution to allow them to carry out their proposed program of research. Grants can be funded by the government or through charities and philanthropy, and may cover an entire program of research, smaller individual projects, staff costs or equipment. Research grants are generally limited in both value and time (for example £1 million pounds over 3 years), which means that lead researchers need to continually apply for research grants so that their research can continue. In 2016/17, less than 25% of submitted NIHR grant proposals were successful, which means on average, principal investigators write 4 research proposals for every one that is successful!
Research methods
Research methods are the ways researchers collect and analyse information. So, research methods include techniques such as interviews, questionnaires, diaries, observational studies, clinical trials, experiments, analysing documents or statistics, and observing people’s behaviour (among many others!).
Research partner
The term research partner is used to describe people who get actively involved in research, to the extent that they are seen by their ‘professional’ colleagues as a partner, rather than someone who might be consulted occasionally. Partnership suggests that researchers and service users/carers have a relationship that involves mutual respect and equality.
Research proposal
This is a document (or, more commonly, a set of documents) that describes a proposed or intended program of research that researchers are seeking funding for. It will cover the aim of the research, what the research questions are, who will be involved (both as participants and in carrying out the research), the timescale and the cost.
Review
A summary of the literature that aims to give an overview of the ‘field’ at that moment in time. Reviews are often commissioned by research journals, who approach leading academics to draw together individual studies on a topic to synthesise an overview.
Risk
The chances of a particular outcome happening to an individual.