Public attitude studies help us to appreciate people’s views about our work and our science. We get involved in a variety of public attitude studies as advisers, commissioners or funders.
This work helps to ensure that we are aware of public attitudes to medical research and to take account of public concerns. Insights from this work can also help our researchers understand how best to communicate their work.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) has participated in a series of public attitude studies, including:
- Understanding patient data, a task force led by Wellcome and supported by MRC (ongoing)
- ‘Research Councils UK Public Insight Research’, led by Research Councils UK (RCUK) on behalf of the UK research councils (2017) – see report in the UK Government Web Archive
- Factors affecting public engagement by researchers, led by Wellcome on behalf of a consortium of UK research funders including the UK Research Councils (2015)
- Genome sequencing: What do patients think?, led by Genetic Alliance UK with funding from MRC (2015)
- Openness in animal research, led by Understanding Animal Research with support from MRC and ScienceWise (2013)
- Public Involvement Impact Assessment Framework (PiiAF), developed by the PiiAF Study Group with funding from MRC (2013)
- ‘Public and professional views towards donating human biological samples for biomedical research’, led by the Strategic Tissue Repository Alliances Through Unified Methods (STRATUM) with support from MRC (2013)
- ‘Public dialogue on data openness, data reuse and data management’, led by RCUK on behalf of the UK Research Councils (2012)
- Assessing public attitudes to health-related findings in research, led by Wellcome with support from MRC (2012)
- ‘RCUK Review of e-Science’, led by EPSRC on behalf of the UK Research Councils (2009) – see report in the UK Government Web Archive
- ‘Public and stakeholder stem cell dialogue’, led by MRC in partnership with Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, with support from Sciencewise (2008) – see report in the UK Government Web Archive
- ‘The use of personal health information in medical research’, commissioned by MRC (2007) – see report in the UK Government Web Archive
- ‘Ageing: research into public attitudes towards BBSRC and MRC-funded research on ageing’, led by MRC in partnership with Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (2006) – see report in the UK Government Web Archive
- Factors affecting science communication by scientists and engineers, led by The Royal Society on behalf of a consortium of organisations including the UK Research Councils (2006)
- ‘Attitudes to animal research’, commissioned by members of the Coalition for Medical Progress including MRC (2005)
- ‘Public consultation on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies’, run in partnership with Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency (2004)
- ‘Public consultation on the use of human embryos in medical research’ commissioned by a consortium of organisations including MRC (2003)
- DNA 50th anniversary survey, commissioned by MRC (2003)
Last updated: 26 February 2024