If you are interested in taking part in research as a patient or service user, ask your doctor, nurse or other health professional if there are any suitable opportunities.

You can also register with Be Part of Research, a free NIHR-supported service that makes it easy to find and take part in vital health and care research across the UK.

Just register which health conditions you’re interested in and the service will match you to suitable studies and send you information on how to take part.

Taking part in research doesn’t just involve testing new drugs or treatments – we often carry out patient surveys, ask people to advise on ideas for research or use routine observations that are already collected.

We also have our own biobank, the Northern Care Alliance Research Collection and if you are a patient at one of our hospitals you may be asked if you will donate a sample to this.