Research volunteer
Research volunteer
Credit: Rob Judges. This image comes from Oxford University Images

Get involved with our research

Some of our research projects rely on the generosity of people like you. Whether it's harnessing the power of your home PC, taking part in a clinical trial, or simply volunteering your time for a study, you may be able to contribute to some of the ground-breaking projects which make the University of Oxford a world leader in research. Watch this space for ways in which you could get involved.

Psychological Effects of a Single Session of Physical Activity in Virtual Reality

We are looking for healthy volunteers, aged 18 years and over, to participate in a virtual reality (VR) study of the psychological effects of exercise. We are recruiting participants who are willing and able to engage in physical activity. You are invited to participate by attending a single session at the University of Oxford Department of Experimental Psychology. This would take about 1 hour of your time. You would be asked to spend time answering questions and 30 minutes in VR, either exercising or doing a non-exercise task.

Contact: Ella Hughes - [email protected]

Our participate information sheet (PDF) contains ethics approval reference, the lead researchers' details and provides greater details about the study. 

Brain Health Centre: Healthy Volunteers Study

We are looking for volunteers, aged 16 years of age and over, to take part in the ‘Brain Health Centre: healthy volunteers’ study.  Information from this study will help us develop new ways to measure brain health and provide new ways to compare brain information from patients with memory problems to brain information from healthy adults to help doctors make more accurate and earlier diagnoses. The study involves one study session, lasting around 2.5hours, and involves having an MRI brain scan and a second optional session lasting approximately 30 minutes.

For more information, please contact Sameera Shabir

Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 01865 618240

Seeking poor sleepers for insomnia research

Trouble sleeping? Researchers from the Sleep & Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford are evaluating different interventions aimed at improving sleep. We are looking for poor sleepers between the ages of 18 and 65. Participation will involve spending overnights in the sleep laboratory at Oxford, monitoring your sleep/wake cycle, and completing computerised tasks. Depending on the study you volunteer for, you will either undergo an online self-help treatment programme or lab-based non-invasive brain stimulation sessions prior to bedtime. You will be reimbursed for your time.

If you are interested in taking part or would like more information, please contact the research team directly at [email protected]

Volunteers with lazy eye wanted

We are looking for volunteers with a history of lazy eye, patching or amblyopia to take part in our brain scanning study on how binocular vision relates to brain chemistry.

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for healthy, fluent English volunteers aged 18-45 with a history of lazy eye, patching therapy or amblyopia.

You will also be asked questions about your medical history to check your suitability for an MRI scan.

Participants will be reimbursed for their time.

How can I find out more?

If you are interested and would like more information please contact Betina Ip in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, by emailing [email protected] or visit amblyopiaproject.wordpress.com

CUREC No: MSD-IDREC-C1-2014-146

Oxford Vaccine Group

The Oxford Vaccine Group, part of the Department of Paediatrics, is an independent multi-disciplinary clinical trials and epidemiology group based at the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine. OVG works towards the goal of developing new and improved vaccines for the prevention of infection in adults and children, enhancing the understanding of immunity and studying the epidemiology of infectious diseases.

To find out which research projects are currently recruiting volunteers, please see the OVG website or email [email protected]

Vaccine Trials

The Jenner Institute works to develop innovative vaccines against major global diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and influenza and often needs participants for trials. To find out which trials are currently recruiting volunteers, please see the Jenner Institute website or email [email protected].

Oxford Education Deanery 

We warmly welcome interest from teachers in local state-maintained schools that are members of the Oxford Education Deanery that want to engage with/in research and/or undertake continuing professional development. Opportunities available to eligible teachers include the NQT induction programme, Action Research Fellowships and the Enhanced Masters in Learning and Teaching. We are also keen to work collaboratively with local Deanery schools to develop research projects that meet school needs and disseminate findings effectively. If your school is not a Deanery member and you are interested in joining, please follow this link for contact information.

Nuffield Centre for Experimental Social Sciences

The Nuffield Centre for Experimental Social Science (CESS) is currently recruiting for its pool of individuals interested in participating in paid experiments in social sciences.  

CESS currently conducts online experiments that can be completed from the comfort of your home (while we prepare the reopening of the physical laboratory). Typical CESS studies involve reading instructions and making a series of decisions at a computer that may affect the final compensation that is received by you and other participants.

Participants make at least £3 for every experiment they show up for and earn additional average payments of £8/hour depending on decisions made during the experiment. Participation is entirely voluntary and you can remove yourself from the participant pool at any time.

For additional information, please do not hesitate to contact [email protected]

Oxford eXperimental lab for the Social Sciences

The Oxford Internet Institute, together with the Saïd Business School, is recruiting individuals to participate in computer-based experiments involving online surfing behaviour as well as economic and political decision-making. We pay our subjects well, there are no special skills required and you don't have to be a student to take part!

Climateprediction.net

Climateprediction.net, run by researchers at the Department of Physics, harnesses the power of volunteers’ computers to produce predictions of the Earth’s climate and test the accuracy of climate models. You can take part by running a climate model as a background process on your computer, and you'll get to see your own, unique version of the world evolve.

Experimental Psychology research

The Department of Experimental Psychology is always looking for volunteers for a changing portfolio of research projects. 

Diabetes clinical research

Clinical trials – the controlled testing of the safety and effectiveness of new therapies with lots of patients – are essential to medical science, yet recruiting volunteers can be a problem. If you’re interested in learning about the benefits and what’s involved, a new website has been launched by the Diabetes Research Network, coordinated by the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM) and Imperial College London.

Free Speech Debate

Join Professor Timothy Garton Ash's global debate on free speech.  Read and criticise the project's 10 draft principles. Explore controversial examples. Hear the thoughts of others. 

The editorial content of the website is being translated into Arabic, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Urdu.

Ancient Lives

Armchair archaeologists are needed to help decode ancient Egyptian papyri, written in Greek.

Galaxy Zoo

By taking part in classifying galaxies with our Department of Astrophysics, you'll not only be contributing to scientific research, you'll also have the chance to view parts of the Universe that literally no-one has ever seen before.

Moon Zoo

Become a virtual astronaut and examine the surface of the moon. You'll not only get the chance to spot things that have never been seen before - everything from lost Russian spacecraft to previously unseen geological features -  but you'll also help us answer vital scientific questions.