Lay involvement

We have thousands of members, volunteers and supporters. Every day we hear the views and experiences of people with asthma. As a patient organisation which invests substantially in asthma research, it is our duty to ensure the research we fund, and encourage others to fund, is both relevant and important to people affected by asthma.

Involving the public in research is an established goal of science policy in the UK, and there is increasing pressure on research funding organisations in the charitable sector to follow this example.

There are numerous ways in which the public can be involved in research, such as:

• identifying and prioritising research topics
• being part of research advisory groups and steering groups
• undertaking research projects
• reporting and communicating research findings.

At Asthma UK, we are working hard to ensure that people with asthma influence our research priorities, help us select projects to fund, and have opportunities to take part in good quality research projects.

Fundamental to this work are our Asthma UK Research & Policy (RaP) Volunteers. There are now around 100 such volunteers, many of whom are willing to take part in research or give their perspective on the questions that matter to people with asthma.

This year, 20 Research & Policy volunteers reviewed research applications as part of our annual grant round, and four representatives were actively involved in the final selection meeting. Their role is to ensure that not only do we fund the best science, but that it is relevant to people affected
by asthma.