People across Forth Valley now have the opportunity to sign up for information on new COVID-19 vaccine trials. The new UK-wide NHS COVID-19 vaccine research registry, which is being and is being developed by the UK Government’s Vaccine Taskforce, will help recruit people into vaccine trials over the coming months.

NHS COVID-19 research efforts in Scotland are being led by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) of Scottish Government, NHS Research Scotland (NRS) and Health Board Research and Development Offices; working closely, and in collaboration with equivalents across the UK nations, to enable and deliver research into COVID-19.

There are a number of vaccines being identified and safety-tested at the moment, but only large scale trials can give scientists the information needed about how effective they are.

Dr Graham Foster, NHS Forth Valley’s Director of Public Health, said: “Researchers are looking for people from all parts of the UK, including both people with or without existing health conditions, to help make sure that any vaccines developed will work for everyone.

“I’d encourage anyone interested to sign up so that they can find out more and get involved in current and future vaccine trials.”

The NHS Covid-19 vaccine research registry is available to anyone aged 18 or over, living in the UK. To register, people fill in some personal and contact details, and answer a series of basic health screening questions on an NHS.UK website form. The service is highly secure, with personal data and permissions held in a NHS system managed by NHS Digital, the national organisation responsible for IT in the health and social care system.

People registering their details through the service are not signing up to take part in a specific trial or study. Instead, researchers working on vaccine studies supported by the NIHR will be able to search for volunteers who have signed up to the service.

When a suitable volunteer has been identified, the researchers will send an email or text to anyone who matches the criteria for their study. This will provide more information about the study – and offer the user the opportunity to contact the research team and find out more, or express an interest to take part.

More information about taking part in COVID-19 vaccine research can be found at www.bepartofresearch.uk