Now, there is a better way.
MyResearchStudy is a registry, not a recruiter. People say once what they would take part in. Research teams find them, consented and de-identified, in days rather than months.
Free for participants
Two minutes, plain questions, no account needed to look. Nothing is shared until you say so.
Consented, de-identified pool
Research teams search by condition and eligibility. They see a fit score, not a name, until the person agrees to an introduction.
Results in weeks
A site can be live on the registry in days. No new IT, no data migration, no change to your ethics approval.
Built to match.
Before you decide
What taking part really means. In plain English, risks included.
What a clinical trial actually is
A clinical trial is how a new treatment is tested before it can be offered on the NHS. People volunteer to take it under medical supervision while a research team measures what happens: whether it works, and what side effects it causes.
Every trial runs to a written plan, called a protocol, that has to be approved before a single person is recruited. Nothing about it is improvised. Trials run in phases, and a treatment only moves to the next one if the evidence supports it.
- PHASE I
Is it safe?
A small group, often 20 to 80 people, checking that a treatment is safe and how the body handles it.
- PHASE II
Does it work?
A larger group, looking at whether it has the intended effect and refining the dose.
- PHASE III
Is it better?
Hundreds or thousands of people, comparing it against the current standard of care.
- PHASE IV
Does it hold up?
After approval, watching long-term safety in everyday use.
The risks, stated plainly
- Side effects, including ones nobody has seen yet. Finding them is part of what a trial is for.
- You may be placed in a comparison group and receive standard care or a placebo instead of the new treatment. Where a standard treatment already exists, a placebo is normally given alongside it, not in place of it.
- The treatment being tested may turn out to be no better than current care. Sometimes it is worse.
- Extra appointments, tests and paperwork. Some procedures, such as repeated blood samples or scans, are uncomfortable.
- Travel and time, even where both are reimbursed.
- No guarantee you personally benefit. Many people take part so that the next person does.
- A trial can close early, and taking part may mean changes to your usual medicines that you should discuss with your own doctor first.
How we choose who we work with
- Approval before listing. A study cannot appear on the registry until it holds a favourable opinion from an NHS Research Ethics Committee and HRA approval. Trials of medicines also need MHRA authorisation.
- A public registration number, so you can look the study up yourself on ISRCTN or ClinicalTrials.gov rather than taking our word for it.
- A named sponsor, and a named research team responsible for your care while you take part.
- Participant information written in language a person can actually read. If we can't follow it, we ask for it to be rewritten.
- Reimbursement of reasonable travel and time, stated up front on the match.
- We turn studies down. If a team won't state its risks plainly, can't evidence its approvals, or wants identifying details before you have consented, it doesn't go on the registry.
Your rights, at every point
- To have it explained properly. In plain language, with time to think and someone to ask. That is informed consent, and it is a conversation, not a signature.
- To say no, without giving a reason.
- To leave at any time, for any reason, with no effect on your NHS care.
- To delete your registry profile whenever you want. Information already collected during a study you joined may need to be kept so the results stay valid — that study's consent form sets out exactly what and why.
- To be told what the study found.
- To be reimbursed for reasonable travel and time, and never to be charged for taking part.
- To complain — to the research team, the sponsor, or the Health Research Authority.
This is a summary to help you decide whether to look further. It isn't medical advice. Before joining any study, read its participant information sheet in full and talk it through with the research team or your own doctor.
Read the full safety guide →Become a partner site
Stop chasing lists. Bring us your hardest study to recruit. Be a partner site and see results in weeks.
Respiratory, cardiology, oncology, mental health, rare disease. Talk to us and we will open your study on the registry together.
What you get
What we look for in a partner
Recognise the phone list?
Let's build the better way together.
How research teams use MyResearchStudy
Built for where it's hardest. Expanding across the NHS.
Pilot · Respiratory studies · Greater Manchester
A teaching hospital opened an asthma study on the registry. Example figures from the prototype pilot, not audited results.
What changed
Before
~6months
To reach 40% of target through clinic lists and GP mail-outs.
With the registry
3weeks
To the same point. One list, ranked by fit, introductions in two clicks.
"Nobody had ever asked me. I'd have said yes years ago."
— A participant, Leeds
"I can see who fits before I pick up the phone. That's the whole job changed."
— A research nurse
Where else the registry works
Long-term conditions
+Diabetes, COPD, heart failure. People living with a condition for years are the most under-asked group in research.
Rare disease
+When forty eligible people exist in the whole country, a national registry is the only list that works.
Healthy volunteers
+Phase I units and vaccine studies fill cohorts from people who asked to be told, not from adverts.
Built to match: with the participant in control.
Condition, eligibility, location, availability are one view, not ten spreadsheets.
| Ref | Age | Area | Criteria met | Fit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P-4821 | 34 | M13 | 9 / 9 | 94% | Request intro |
| P-3390 | 47 | M20 | 9 / 9 | 92% | Request intro |
| P-5107 | 29 | SK8 | 8 / 9 | 86% | — |
| P-2216 | 52 | OL4 | 8 / 9 | 84% | — |
| P-6633 | 61 | WA14 | 7 / 9 | 79% | — |
Manage by fit.
The list is ranked by how many entry criteria a person meets, not by who replied to a letter.
Reads your protocol.
Inclusion and exclusion criteria go in as written. SNOMED-coded conditions do the matching.
Works with your site file.
No new IT. Introductions export to whatever your team already uses.
Matches across studies.
One person, every study they could join, ranked. No double-asking across sites.
Acts only with consent.
You see a reference and a fit score. The person decides whether you get a name.
Learns what recruits.
Every introduction that turns into a screening visit makes the next ranking better.
How the registry protects people.
Health data and research recruitment have a history of getting this wrong. That's the hard part we built around. What this means for participants is set out in plain language here.
Ethics first.
A study cannot appear without a REC reference and HRA approval.
Consent in the loop.
Nothing is shared with a research team until the person says yes to that study.
De-identified by default.
Teams see a reference, an age band and a postcode area. Never a name.
Every access logged.
Who looked, when, at what. Auditable under UK GDPR.
Withdraw any time.
One click removes you from the registry and every open match.
Have a harder question?
Read your rightsBuilt by people who have recruited at scale.
Our team has spent years running studies inside the NHS and building systems that hold up under real-world pressure.
Working within
Help move medicine forward.
Two minutes to see the studies you could join. Free, consented, and you can leave whenever you like.