Appendix 1: Glossary of common terms

Definition: Healthcare professionals include, but are not limited to; nurses, midwives, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, genetic counsellors, clinical pharmacists, healthcare scientists, dentists, doctors and allied health professionals.

Definition: A healthcare professional is defined as ‘new to research’ if they are currently in a training post or within 5 years of appointment to a substantive NHS (or equivalent) position (excluding career breaks, and extended pro-rata for those in less than full-time work). Special consideration will be given to those who can demonstrate they were only able to take up research opportunities later in their career.

Definition: RDN customers are funders, sponsors, investigators and their agents and teams, in relation to NIHR RDN portfolio studies. 

Definition: RDN stakeholder is the umbrella term for people or organisations (or groups of these) with an interest or concern in the NHS or wider health and care system, health and care research or the NIHR RDN generally.

These include specific groups such as RDN staff, RDN customers, sites for RDN research, health and care staff, patients and the wider public, groups representing individuals across the health and care system, and Government departments and arms’ length bodies.

Definition: A participant, also called a research, trial, or study participant, is a person who is recruited into a study or otherwise provides data or other material for a study.

We should be specific and refer to ‘research participants’, ‘potential participants’ or 'volunteers' depending on relevance, rather than patients. It is important to use people-centred language routinely.

Participants and other members of the public are not RDN staff and therefore the possessive term ‘our’ should not be used.

Definition: Delivery organisations (previously referred to in LCRNs as “Partner organisations”) include health and care organisations, and their agents (such as Clinical Research Organisations (CROs)) who deliver RDN-supported research or receive RDN Funding in pursuance of research delivery. 

These include NHS and care provider organisations and health and care professionals. 

Some delivery organisations may include a number of research sites (e.g. a large hospital trust or chain of care homes), others may be a single site (eg an independent care home). 

To avoid confusion with other RDN stakeholders, we should use the term ‘delivery organisations’ when referring to these organisations, rather than Partners.

Definition: Staff employed by or on behalf of RDN host organisations (RRDNs and RDNCC). These include:

• Staff employed to undertake RRDN management functions (‘RRDN Management Team’)

• RRDN Agile Research Delivery Teams

• RRDN Specialties and Setting Leads

• RDNCC staff

Definition: A core Regional Research Delivery Network (RRDN) multidisciplinary team of regionally based, flexible staff who are centrally managed and regionally deployed to support the RDN portfolio of studies across all specialties and settings.

The Agile Research Delivery Team covers previous LCRN staff who may be described as the direct delivery teams, and/or those funded by the Transformation of Research Delivery funding, primary care, social care and out of hospital research delivery staff, and all other centrally managed, peripatetic research staff.

Definition: RDN provides funding for staff employed by Delivery organisations in pursuance of study delivery (also referred to as ‘research support staff’). These staff are not included in the definition of RDN staff.

Definition: RDN Directors are the directors with collective responsibility for the whole RDN. They are: the 12 RRDN Directors, the RDNCC Directors, and the RDN Executive Director.

The RDN Directors and the DHSC representatives make up the RDN Board.