Better recognition for research participants: what society should learn from covid-19

Stephanie Kraft and colleagues argue that doing more to acknowledge the important role of research participants could help recruitment Covid-19 has shown the importance of research volunteers. More than 8000 covid related trials have been registered across 150 countries,1 reflecting enormous global efforts to identify effective vaccines and treatments. Many of these trials involved thousands of participants; the Recovery trial alone has enrolled nearly 50 000 participants across the UK to test covid-19 treatments.2 Several hundred thousand more people have participated in vaccine trials, and more than one million will have enrolled by completion.3 The importance of research participants during the pandemic has not gone wholly unnoticed, with high profile public acknowledgement in the UK and the US.456 Nevertheless, participants’ contributions are not consistently recognised or reciprocated across society. For instance, some UK trial volunteers found it difficult to access vaccine passports7 when the vaccines they received were not authorised quickly.89 Furthermore, low and middle income countries that hosted covid-19 vaccine trials have had disproportionately less access to authorised vaccines than high income countries.10 As the world takes stock of lessons learnt during the covid-19 pandemic, the disconnect between the societal impact of research volunteers’ contributions and the recognition and rewards volunteers receive needs attention. We argue that society should better recognise participants’ contributions, consider their needs after trials, and share research products fairly. Such recognition could increase public willingness to participate in research in the long term. Before the pandemic clinical trials often struggled with recruitment.111213 An analysis of trials closed in 2011 showed that 19% were either terminated for failure to enrol enough participants or closed with less than 85% of their target sample size.12 Accrual failures waste resources and undermine society’s ability to obtain …