Background

In 2006, MRC hosted an international workshop which focussed on the UK strengths in population-based mental health research, particularly large-scale cohort studies. Topics discussed at the meeting included the scientific and strategic opportunities for population-based research, the key challenges and the immediate barriers to progress. A recurring theme related to the better utilisation of existing research datasets, including enabling their discovery. The MRC commissioned a survey to start to address this research community need.

Principal Investigators of 118 studies in the UK and abroad were approached during the survey over a two-month period; 93 completed questionnaires were returned. This initial focus has been on large cohort studies (>1,000 individuals), with the inclusion of some smaller studies funded by the MRC. At present, this is not a comprehensive or representative survey of all studies of relevance in the UK and abroad.

The MRC, in partnership with the MHRN have developed a web-enabled version of this survey with the view of providing a comprehensive, up-to-date information resource for researchers. This is closely allied to MRC’s Data Sharing Initiative which aims to maximise opportunities for enabling wider use of publicly-funded data for further high quality, ethical research.