Six areas, and what a study in each is usually after
This describes the areas, not a list of open studies. Which studies are recruiting changes from week to week, and a page that pretended otherwise would be out of date the day after it was written.
Cardiometabolic
Heart failure, high blood pressure that has not settled on treatment, lipid disorders, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and the combinations of those that tend to arrive together.
What tends to run here. Mostly later-phase drug and device trials, and a steady number of observational studies that follow people for a year or more without changing their treatment.
What a study will want to know. What you are already taking, and whether any of it has changed recently. This is the area where a recent change of medication most often decides eligibility.
Respiratory
Asthma, COPD, chronic cough, and breathlessness that has been investigated without a clear answer.
What tends to run here. Inhaled treatments, biologics for severe asthma, and studies of what makes symptoms worse in cold months — several of which only recruit between autumn and spring.
What a study will want to know. How often symptoms interrupt an ordinary day, whether you have been admitted to hospital for breathing, and whether you smoke or used to.
Mental health
Depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders including insomnia. Sometimes studies of talking therapies rather than medication.
What tends to run here. Drug trials, digital and app-delivered therapy trials, and studies comparing an existing treatment against a newer one.
What a study will want to know. What has been tried before and for how long. Most studies in this area care more about treatment history than about a score on any one questionnaire.
Women’s health
Endometriosis, heavy or painful periods, menopause symptoms, PCOS and fertility.
What tends to run here. Drug and device trials, and a large share of observational research, because several of these conditions have been studied far less than their prevalence would suggest.
What a study will want to know. How long you waited for a diagnosis, and what you are using now. Studies here often recruit people who have been through several treatments already.
Neurology
Migraine, epilepsy, Parkinson’s and other movement disorders, and some studies of long-term nerve pain.
What tends to run here. Preventive treatments, devices, and long-running observational studies.
What a study will want to know. How often episodes happen and how predictable they are. This is the area where the visit schedule is most often the deciding factor, so travel and time come up early.
Healthy volunteers
No diagnosis at all. Early-phase studies need people who are well, and often need quite a lot of them.
What tends to run here. Phase 1 trials, bioequivalence studies, and imaging or sampling studies that need a comparison group alongside people who do have the condition.
What a study will want to know. Age, weight, whether you smoke, and what you take regularly — including things that are not prescriptions. These studies have the tightest entry criteria on the site, which is the part people find surprising.
Most people do not match the first thing they read
Eligibility is narrow on purpose
A trial that let everyone in would not be able to tell whether its treatment worked. The criteria are narrow because the question is narrow, and being turned down by one is not a judgement about you or about how unwell you are.
An area being listed is not a promise
Every area here has periods with nothing open in it. When that is the case the eligibility check says so rather than taking your details and leaving you waiting for a call that is not coming.
Where you live matters more than people expect
Most studies run at a fixed set of sites and need you to get to them repeatedly, sometimes for a year or more. A study can fit you perfectly and still be three hours away, which is a real answer and we would rather give it early.
Trials have not historically recruited everyone equally
Clinical research has long recruited disproportionately from the people nearest to large research hospitals, and disproportionately few older people, women in several areas, and people from Black, Hispanic and South Asian backgrounds. That matters beyond fairness: a result from a group that does not resemble the people who will eventually take the treatment is a weaker result.
We cannot fix that by ourselves, and we are not going to claim we have. What we can do is publish what a study wants before it asks anything of you, so that deciding not to take part is as easy and as informed as deciding to.
Things people ask before they read further
No. It is background written in plain language. Nothing here should be used to decide whether to start, stop or change any treatment, and it is not a substitute for the team who look after you. If something here does not match what you have been told about your own case, what you have been told is the thing that applies to you.
For five of the six areas, yes — a study recruiting people with asthma needs people who have been diagnosed with asthma. Healthy volunteer studies are the exception and want the opposite. If you have symptoms but no diagnosis, the honest answer is that a trial is not usually the route in.
Because it would be wrong within days. Studies pause recruitment, fill a site, add a site, or change their criteria partway through. The eligibility check reads what is actually open at the moment you run it, which is the only version worth publishing.
Yes, and plenty of people are — the conditions in the first area in particular tend to arrive in groups. The check asks about each area separately rather than making you pick one.
A parent or legal guardian can use it on behalf of a child under 18, and we will ask you to confirm that is your relationship. For an adult who cannot complete it themselves, write to us instead — that situation needs a person, not a form.
No. The check is anonymous and nothing is stored unless you get to the end and decide to send your details. Even then it is not consent to take part in research: every study is a separate decision, made in front of a person, with a document you sign.