Our commitment to improve involvement

Cancer Research UK is committed to driving up standards in health and social care research and believes excellent patient involvement is inclusive, values all contributions, and ensures people affected by cancer have a say in what happens.

The shared commitment to public involvement in health and social care research

Together, the Shared Commitment members fund, support and regulate health and social care research. The shared commitment is our joint commitment to improve the extent and quality of public involvement across the sector so that it is consistently excellent.

People have the right to be involved in all health and social care research. Excellent public involvement is an essential part of health and social care research and has been shown to improve its quality and impact. People’s lived experiences should be a key driver for health and social care research.

When we talk about involvement, we mean all the ways in which people affected by cancer, the charity and the research community work together. This includes patients, carers, advocates, researchers, clinicians and members of staff and the community. Excellent involvement is inclusive, values all contributions, ensures people have a meaningful say in what happens and influences outcomes, as set out in the UK Standards for Public Involvement.

Working together we will support the research community to carry out excellent involvement. We will provide or share guidance, policies, systems, and incentives. We will

• listen to and learn from the people and communities we involve and apply and share that learning

• build and share the evidence of how to involve the public and the impact this has

• support improvements in equality, diversity, and inclusion in involvement

• promote the UK Standards for Public Involvement

• Embed the UK Standards for Public Involvement in our guiding principles for involvement at Cancer Research UK

Find more from each of the partners

For researchers

Statement of intent for patient and public involvement

Cancer Research UK has created a Statement of intent for patient and public involvement. This highlights our commitment to involving people affected by cancer in our research and details how we will do this.