Reporting and Findings

Each year, nationally approved PRES response reporting templates are available to RRDN (Regional Research Delivery Network) Study Participation and Inclusion Managers through the national Stakeholder Engagement and Communications Toolkit. These templates should be used by RRDNs to report on the responses to national surveys each quarter to the Research Delivery Network Coordinating Centre (RDNCC).  Please check the guide on 'How to complete PRES response reporting templates'. 

Annual reporting milestones for the national survey response are:

• Quarter 1 reporting deadline - Friday 18th  July 2025

• Quarter 2  reporting deadline- Friday 17th Oct 2025

• Quarter 3 reporting deadline- Friday 16th January 2026

• Quarter 4 reporting deadline- Friday 17th April 2026

Delivery Organisations should liaise with their RRDN as to local arrangements for reporting PRES responses. RRDNs who have the approval to run their own local versions of PRES should contact the RDNCC to agree on the reporting requirements for these.

Important: RRDNs will provide Delivery Organisations with a copy of all PRES responses collected at their respective sites.

For PRES responses to be counted towards national targets and to be included in national reporting, when reported responses must include:

• the research site ID code from the NIHR portfolio

• either the study IRAS number or NIHR portfolio ID code

This information is available via the NIHR Open Data Platform.

Detailed reporting guidance and a recommended quality assurance process for PRES responses are available to RRDNs via the Stakeholder Engagement and Communications toolkit. The following principles should be followed when reporting responses:

• For qualitative questions, unanswered questions should be recorded as 'No response' and where respondents have written their own answer different to the options provided these should be recorded as an 'Invalid response'  

• PRES responses should be anonymous and no personally identifiable data (PID) should be submitted within national reporting templates

• Free text responses should be reported verbatim (minus any PID), with no corrections of spelling or grammar

• Where no free text responses have been provided, reporting spaces should be left blank. Unless written in by the respondent, staff should not enter N/A, blank, no answer etc. to denote no response was provided

Annually, PRES runs from 1 April to 31 March. The results of PRES are then made available in the summer, usually by the end of July. NIHR produces two levels of PRES report:

1. Local PRES reports - these are produced by each RRDN. They are an analysis of the PRES data collected in each RRDN region. Local reports vary by RRDN and may include analysis of all regional data, or may focus on particular studies, research sites or research specialities depending on what is most locally relevant. Delivery Organisations should contact their RRDN to find out about their local PRES report.

2. National PRES report - published each year on NIHR.ac.uk by the NIHR Coordinating Centre. This report includes an analysis of all eligible PRES responses collected during the year. The report includes an analysis of the response rates to all standard questions and includes a review of the core themes identified through an analysis of the free-text questions. The report makes recommendations on areas of research delivery where there may be opportunities for continuous improvement.

Currently, NIHR can not provide bespoke national PRES reports by study or research speciality. Those interested in accessing the national PRES data to produce their own reports should contact rdncc.ppt@leeds.ac.uk.  Each RRDN has its own regional PRES dashboard which offers the ability to cut regional PRES data, and Delivery Organisations should contact their RRDN for access. A national PRES dashboard is now developed. Please contact the Public Partnerships team or RRDNs PPIE  leads for more information.

There are no requirements for Delivery Organisations to produce their own PRES reports, though they are welcome to do so. RRDNs and Delivery Organisations are encouraged to partner locally to identify areas of continuous improvement using site-level, regional or national PRES insights as appropriate (see PRES Delivery Guidance). Each year, national PRES findings are reviewed with the National PRES Advisory Group and disseminated across the NIHR and with other key strategic partners to make use of. 

Case studies of how the findings of PRES are utilised are available from RRDNs or via the national report.

• PRES 2023/2024 National Report on NIHR.ac.uk

• PRES 2022/2023 National Report on NIHR.ac.uk

• PRES 2021/2022 National Report on NIHR.ac.uk

• PRES 2020/2021 National Executive Summary on NIHR.ac.uk

• PRES 2019/2020 National Executive Summary (.pdf file)