Participant and cohort member involvement is at the heart of all we do at the Raine Study and our participants have an active interest in our research.
This philosophy guides all levels of the Raine Study from how we interact with participants at data collection, the importance we place on providing plain language summaries of published research, and the value we place on letting their opinions guide decisions on what we research and how that research is conducted.
To follow through the Raine Study’s philosophy, cohort members are imbedded into the entire research development process. Positions have been created in research projects, on Raine Study committees, and in our Special Interest Groups (SIGs).
The Raine Study encourages all researchers and project leads to place a Raine Study cohort member on their project to ensure cohort consultation has been implemented in the development of their research. The purpose of including a cohort member in the planning and development of an individual project once approved is to gain their opinions and feedback on the project from a participant perspective and provide the cohort member a big picture understanding about the project. The inclusion of cohort consultation in the research development process may also assist the potential success of grant applications as cohort or community consultation has become the gold standard of grant applications.
The Raine Study recommends that researchers incorporate cohort consultation into their project planning. This will have the benefit of:
- Ensuring that research decisions are guided by suggestions from the broader community about what research they consider useful and relevant, and
- Improving the chances of a grant application being successful.
The Raine Study can facilitate and streamline this access as a benefit of working with the Raine Study, since cohort members are embedded into all aspects of the Raine Study’s operations and decision-making processes. Cohort consultation should be requested as early as possible in the planning stage of the project proposal. Depending on the scope of the consultation required, there may be costs involved which should be factored into project budgets. The Raine Study can advise on this when the initial request is made.