# Programme design and recruitment The aim of Our Future Health is to provide two main resources for health research: * a prospective observational dataset for research * a research platform with participants who can be recontacted for translational research ([Clinical Research Recruitment Service](https://research.ourfuturehealth.org.uk/clinical-research-recruitment/)) Find out more about our programme in the [Cohort Profile: Our Future Health](https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaf171) publication in the International Journal of Epidemiology (Volume 54, Issue 6, December 2025) or in the Our Future Health protocol on the [Our Future Health website](https://ourfuturehealth.org.uk/). {% file src="/files/9cq6TRkT7fPnAerifMDu" %} *** ### Design of the Our Future Health programme #### What are the objectives and rationale of Our Future Health? The Our Future Health programme aims to help people live longer, healthier lives through better prevention, earlier detection and improved treatment of diseases. The specific objectives of the programme, as described in detail in the [Our Future Health Protocol (external PDF)](https://a.storyblok.com/f/228028/x/4956beb097/protocol-v7_12jan2026-with-appendices.pdf), are to: * build a research resource that generates and links multiple sources of health and health-relevant information from 10% of the UK adult population (around 5 million people) * collect information on socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, individual and family history through self-reported questionnaires * collect blood samples which are stored and used for analysis * conduct genotyping on a custom genotype array using the donated blood sample from each consented participant * link external medical, health and death records datasets to participants * calculate individual disease risk for participants by combining both genetic and non-genetic information * recontact sub-groups of participants for additional surveys, samples, and recontact studies * facilitate recontact studies which invite participants based on health risks and other characteristics * make the baseline plasma samples stored in our biobank available for discovery and validation of predictive biomarkers for diagnostic and prognostic algorithms Building a large resource with linkage to health-related data and enabling feedback and recontact will provide the foundation for a new generation of discovery and translational research. #### What is the study design and setting of the Our Future Health programme? Our Future Health is a prospective, observational cohort study of the general adult population of the UK. It is a non-probability sample, obtained through open, volunteer-based recruitment. To be eligible to participate in the programme, individuals must be adults (18 years or older) who currently reside in the UK. Recruitment into the programme is ongoing. Currently, over 2.7 million participants have been recruited (consented) across the UK. There are two main recruitment routes: community, and the NHS Blood and Transplant services (see [#how-do-we-invite-participants-to-join-the-programme](#how-do-we-invite-participants-to-join-the-programme "mention") for more information). Recruitment initially launched in England and has since expanded across the devolved nations, reaching Scotland in June 2024, Wales in September 2024, and Northern Ireland in November 2025. Most participants join the programme after receiving a postal invitation, which are sent to individuals residing within a 5 to 10-mile radius of an Our Future Health clinic (2.5 mile radius for London clinics). Initially, invitations are sent to a random sample of addresses. Over time, everyone within the radial area is invited to participate in the programme. However, individuals do not need an invitation to join the programme and can join through the Our Future Health website or at one of Our Future Health's venues. After registering to participate in the programme, individuals complete a baseline questionnaire online through the Our Future Health Participant Portal. At the same time, participants can book an in-person appointment at one of Our Future Health's clinics to donate blood samples and have physical measurements (including blood pressure, height and weight) taken. Participants give consent for their information to be collected and processed for research. They also give consent for us to recontact them for a broad array of purposes including selective invitation to additional, externally-led studies and trials based on the health-related information participants have provided to the programme. Participants can withdraw from Our Future Health at any point. They can choose to leave existing data in the programme (partial withdrawal) or ask us to destroy all data and samples not already used or in active use as part of a research study (full withdrawal; see [#how-can-participants-withdraw-from-the-programme](#how-can-participants-withdraw-from-the-programme "mention") for more information). Figures 1 and 2 below show a summary of the current recruitment routes and type of information collected from participants.

Figure 1 & 2: Flowcharts of recruitment in community setting and NHSBT.

#### What ethical approvals have been granted for the programme? On the 9th March 2026 East of England – Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee renewed the favourable opinion for Our Future Health as a research tissue bank (REC reference: 26/EE/0030, IRAS Project ID: 363936) for a further five-year period (expires 8th March 2031). The previous favourable opinion for a 5-year period was received from the same committee on 29 March 2021 (ref: 21/EE/0016). The favourable opinion issued to Our Future Health by the Cambridge East NHS Research Ethics Committee applies to all approved research studies using Our Future Health de-identified data. This means that a research study using Our Future Health de-identified data do not require a separate favourable opinion from a REC provided that complies with the [Our Future Health Study Protocol](https://s42615.pcdn.co//wp-content/uploads/Protocol-v7_12JAN2026-CLEAN-1.pdf) and [Access Process](https://research.ourfuturehealth.org.uk/apply-to-access-the-data/), which includes review by the [Our Future Health Access Board](https://ourfuturehealth.org.uk/about-us/how-were-governed/the-access-board/). Researchers using the new Our Future Health [Clinical Research Recruitment Service](https://research.ourfuturehealth.org.uk/clinical-research-recruitment/) to accelerate recruitment to their study or trial are subject to requirements for relevant regulatory and ethics approvals, in addition to our robust governance and Access Process. Read more about ethics and governance of Our Future Health in the [How we’re governed](https://ourfuturehealth.org.uk/about-us/how-were-governed/) section on our website. #### **How have we addressed potential biases in the design and conduct of the programme?** Our Future Health aims to recruit a cohort that reflects the UK population in terms of age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and geography. Eligible adults can choose whether or not to consent to join the programme. We aim to minimise selection biases and to support recruitment of populations who are historically underrepresented in health research by: * offering a large number of in-person appointments across a wide range of geographical locations, including walk-in appointments at some mobile venues since 2025 * allowing participants to book the appointment at a date and time that is convenient (including weekends) * sending reminders for people who have consented to join to complete questionnaires * improving public awareness of the programme through our invitation and media strategies * offer reimbursement (£10 voucher) to participants who completed the questionnaire and donated a blood sample at their appointment to recognise their time and effort (since December 2023) We also aim to support researchers in reducing selection biases in their research by providing, in due course, sampling weights and statistical code. This will improve the accuracy of statistical inferences and enable weighting back to the populations of the UK, England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland (as appropriate to the analyses). Selection bias may occur if we lose contact with some participants over time (loss to follow-up). When this happens, we only have information about those individuals up to the point they were last in contact, and are unable to ask them to complete additional questionnaires or to request other health-related information. As a result, we may miss important health outcomes or other information that occurs later. We can maximise follow-up for health outcomes by linking to accurate and comprehensive electronic health-related databases across the UK. Information biases could also affect research conducted using the Our Future Health resources. These biases could be due to measurement or reporting errors, and missing data. The baseline health questionnaire aims to partly mitigate these biases by providing a broad, robust, and harmonised approach to exposure assessment which: * collects historical health information (not limited to the beginning of an electronic database) * aligns with other recent large prospective cohorts and validated instruments, where possible We have also designed the Our Future Health Illumina genotyping array to maximise parity of performance for different ethnic groups, minimising any population-specific biases in genotyping data quality. Both the imputation backbone and custom content were designed using cross-population, imputation-aware selection strategies, which directly assessed imputation performance between UK ancestral population groups. *** ### Recruitment of Our Future Health participants: more details #### What are the eligibility criteria for programme participants? Our Future Health is an open, volunteer-based research programme. All adults (aged 18 years or older) who live in the UK can join Our Future Health through our website. Individuals do not need a direct invitation to join the programme. #### How do we invite participants to join the programme? There are two main recruitment routes: 1. Community routes (which began in July 2022) 2. NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) route (which began in July 2023) #### Community routes Most participants have joined the programme via community-based recruitment, which involves sending postal invitations, either addressed to a person (via DigiTrials operated by NHS England) or to all adult residents in a household (via non-personalised letters): * NHS DigiTrials route involves sending postal invitations to eligible adults within an approximate 5-mile radius of an Our Future Health clinic (maximum of 10 miles and 2.5 mile radius for London clinics) using an extract from the Personal Demographics Service (PDS) by postcode sector, age group and sex. Based on the capacity of the clinic, we request NHS DigiTrials to sent an appropriate number of invitations to a random selection of eligible adults within the radius. NHS DigiTrials uses name and address data that they hold to sent the selected adults a postal invitation to join the programme on our behalf. At no stage in this invitation process does Our Future Health have access to any identifiable or individual-level data. * The second community-based route involves sending non-personalised letters. Our Future Health uses the Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF) to generate a sequential series of randomly selected addresses within a clinic-specified mile radius, the maximum of which is 10 miles for less densely populated areas and, depending on appointment capacity/availability, until all adult residents in that area are invited to join the programme. Postal invitations are mailed out using an external mail service. All postal invitations included a code, special link or QR code to register on the Our Future Health website, which allowed us to monitor community recruitment efforts and told us the version of invitation text that they had received. However, not all participants entered a code, used a special link, or scanned a QR code, if they had one. Recruitment is open to all eligible to join the programme, which they can do if they visit our website, even if they haven’t received a formal invitation. #### NHS Blood and Transplant route The NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) route invites individuals registered with the NHSBT service via email to join Our Future Health and provide a blood sample at their next routine blood donation appointment. #### Other recruitment routes/pilots In addition to the above recruitment routes, several pilots have also been conducted: * pilot activities of the programme in 2021 – we invited participants during routine blood donations in partnership with the NHSBT, or by email in partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) BioResource from their ‘general population cohort’ * ongoing pilots to establish the most effective combination of engagement, community partnerships and presence at key locations or events, to improve rates and diversity of recruitment, including two pilot studies in 2025 where walk-in appointments were offered at some mobile venues and the community champions programme. * members of the Boots pharmacies customer loyalty programme – these participants joined after receiving an emailed invitation from Boots about the opening of Our Future Health clinics in selected Boots stores * SMS from general practice - patients receive an SMS from their registered general practice on behalf of Our Future Health and in partnership with iPLATO (myGP app) and uMed * pharmacy2U customers – patients who lived close to selected clinics received email invitations from the online pharmacy, on behalf of Our Future Health * ongoing pilots of targeted advertising and recruitment at external events or in specific communities Information on the route of recruitment for each participant is currently not included in the data release. Figure 3 below shows a timeline of recruitment activity.

Figure 3: Recruitment timeline.

#### **How has Our Future Health expanded community-based recruitment across the UK?** Community-based recruitment to Our Future Health involved sending invitation letters to residents within a certain distance of the site of one of our clinics. We tested community-based recruitment in a pilot study from July to September 2022 and expanded from October 2022. We chose to start community recruitment in areas in England that have high levels of deprivation and the highest ethnic diversity. This was to maximise opportunities for individuals of historically under-represented groups to take part in the programme. These areas included the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, London and West Yorkshire. In the subsequent scale-up of community-based recruitment, we increased appointment capacity, provided venue mobility, and increased geographic accessibility to participants. By the end of January 2023, we had opened a total of 28 venues with over 135,000 in-person appointment slots available across England. In March 2023 a new phase of recruitment started, in which we further increased the number of venues across England using two providers: a community pharmacy (Boots Pharmacies) and a healthcare delivery partner (Acacium Group). From mid-2023, most clinics were open 7 days a week. * Boots Pharmacies provide static in-person appointment venues in Boots stores. From July 2022, 10 Boots venues were opened in England, with additional Boots venues being opened on a regular basis. To date there have been 112 Boots venues across England, 13 in Scotland (since June 2024), 5 in Wales (since September 2024), and 3 in Northern Ireland (since November 2025). * Acacium Group provides static in-person appointment venues as well as mobile venues at convenient locations (including shopping centres and high streets) in England. The mobile venues change location roughly every 2 to 8 weeks, based on the size of the local community. From July 2022, 7 static and 4 mobile venues were operating in England. To date there have been 19 static venues and 338 locations with mobile venues operating in England, of which 21 offered walk-in appointments. #### **How has Our Future Health expanded recruitment in partnership with the NHS Blood & Transplant?** In June 2023, NHSBT started sending email invitations to their blood donors, inviting them to join Our Future Health and provide a sample for the programme at a future blood donation appointment. The first 4 blood donation teams started collecting samples in July 2023 in England, with new locations opening each month in England. By June 2024 there were 80 blood donation teams collecting samples from blood donors who had joined Our Future Health. *** ### Consent of Our Future Health participants #### How are participants consented into the programme? The method of consent in Our Future Health is digital. The consent process starts with information provision which comprises the [Consent Form (external PDF)](https://s42615.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Consent-Form-V4.0-06MARCH2026-.pdf) and the [Participant Information Sheet (external PDF)](https://s42615.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Participant-Information-Sheet-V4.0-06MARCH2026Digital-Accessible.pdf), opportunities for potential participants to have their questions answered, and a formal recording that the individual consents to participate in the Our Future Health research programme. The consent includes the ability to recontact participants, so we can invite them to complete additional questionnaires, provide further samples, receive personal feedback and consider invitations to enrol in future studies that will have separate Research Ethics Committee (REC) approved study protocols with their own consents and participant information sheets. #### How has the consent form changed over time? The Our Future Health consent form has undergone four major updates (e.g. v1, v2, v3, and v4) alongside several minor update (e.g. v1.2, v1.2, and v1.3). Most minor version updates had no updates to the form and were done to maintain consistency of versioning with Participant Information sheet (PIS). The version of consent form that participants have used to consent to the programme is recorded in the [participant table](/our-future-health/data-types/participant-data.md).
Live date (M/Y)VersionNotes
05/2021v1.1First version of the consent form (Original submission)
07/2022v1.2Changes reflect changes to the Participant Information sheet (PIS) - improve consistency and reading
12/2022v1.3No updates - to maintain consistency of versioning with PIS
05/2023v2.0Clarity in consent form that participants may be recruited to additional studies
06/2023v3.0Additional section on what Our Future Health will share via NHSBT
08/2023v3.1Change reference from NHS Digital to NHS England
01/2024v3.2Cohort wide reimbursement for Our Future Health participants
05/2024v3.3No updates - to maintain consistency of versioning with PIS
N.A.v3.4No updates - to maintain consistency of versioning with PIS
08/2024v3.5No updates - to maintain consistency of versioning with PIS
11/2024v3.6No updates - to maintain consistency of versioning with PIS
12/2024v3.7No updates - to maintain consistency of versioning with PIS
05/2025v3.8No updates - to maintain consistency of versioning with PIS
02/2026v3.9To maintain consistency of versioning with PIS, and referencing England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland
04/2026v4.0To maintain consistency of versioning with PIS, removed electronic signature box and updated IRAS number
#### How can participants withdraw from the programme? At the time of providing consent, participants are informed that they can withdraw from the programme at any time without providing a reason. If a participant chooses to withdraw from Our Future Health, they are given two options: * Partial withdrawal * Our Future Health will no longer contact the participant and will delete all identifiable data from the participant record . * Our Future Health will retain permission to use de-identified information and samples provided previously . * Our Future Health will unlink external datasets, but will retain historical data in a de-identified form . * Full withdrawal * Our Future Health will no longer contact the participant . * Our Future Health will not obtain any further information on the participant and will destroy all data and samples related to this participant (with the exception of existing models or analyses that were created using their de-identified records). * Data and samples for the participant will not be made available for new research projects. When a participant withdraws, either partially or fully, they will not receive any further communications from Our Future Health. It is not possible to remove full withdrawals from any research that has already started, nor the data from any data sets released for research that were prepared before they withdrew. *** ### Participant Data and Sample Collection Process #### **How do participants provide data and samples to the programme?** Eligible adults can join the Our Future Health programme by completing the following steps: * visiting the Our Future Health website ([ourfuturehealth.org.uk](https://ourfuturehealth.org.uk)) for more information about the programme * registering on the website, reading the [Participant Information document (external PDF)](https://s42615.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Participant-Information-Sheet-V3.8-Accessible.pdf), and then reading and electronically signing the consent form to take part in the programme * after completing the consent process, participants can (in either order) complete the baseline health questionnaire and/or book an appointment at one of the Our Future Health clinics to donate a blood sample and have their health-related measurements taken. When a participant attends their appointment, clinic staff will: * confirm the participant’s identity * record the participant’s height, weight, blood pressure, heart rate and rhythm * (between 2022 and 2024, point-of-care testing (POCT) lipid profile was also measured via a finger prick test) * collect 2 x 6mL EDTA tubes of blood * give participants written information on these measurements at the end of the appointment Please note that we only collect blood samples and not the additional health-related measures from participants who are recruited via NHSBT. Participants who join via walk-in follow the same process as the normal community route, the only difference being that they can sign up and attend an appointment on the spot without pre-booking. #### **How are samples processed in the laboratory?** We transport the blood samples to our central processing centre, either in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland. The processing includes centrifugation and extraction of plasma and buffy coat from each of the two 6mL EDTA blood samples. DNA for genotyping is extracted from one of the buffy coats and is stored at -80°C prior to being normalised to a maximum of 100 ng/µL. Normalised DNA samples are genotyped on the custom Our Future Health Illumina BeadChip array. The genotyping array assays approximately 700,000 genetic variants, including variants related to a wide range of health phenotypes, blood typing, and pharmacogenetics, clinically-relevant variants and variants to support imputation. After processing, the following amount of samples are stored in our automated, -80°C biobank: * 6 x 850 µL plasma vials * 1 x 500 µL buffy coat vial * 1 vial of residual DNA from the buffy coat extraction *** ### Further information #### Where can I find more information about Our Future Health? You can find out more about the programme on the [Our Future Health website (external link)](https://ourfuturehealth.org.uk/). You can get the latest updates there, including: * [The Our Future Health Protocol (external PDF)](https://s42615.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Protocol-v7_12JAN2026-CLEAN-1.pdf) * [Ethics and Governance Framework (external PDF)](https://s42615.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Ethics-and-governance-framework-v2.0-April-2021.pdf) * [Participant Information Sheet (external PDF)](https://s42615.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Participant-Information-Sheet-V4.0-06MARCH2026Digital-Accessible.pdf) * [Consent Form (external PDF)](https://s42615.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/Consent-Form-V4.0-06MARCH2026-.pdf) For further information on the current release see the data dictionary and [Data releases section](/our-future-health/data-releases/current-data-release.md). You can find our data dictionary on the [Data and cohort page of our website (external link)](https://research.ourfuturehealth.org.uk/data-and-cohort/). --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://ourfuturehealth.gitbook.io/our-future-health/programme/programme-design-and-recruitment.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.