The #WhyWeDoResearch Tweetfest is back for a third year in 2018, building on two successful previous tweetfests in 2016 and 2017. This year, it’s set to take place between Monday 14 May 2018 and Friday 18 May 2018.
The
#WhyWeDoResearch campaign was established in December 2014 by Claire Whitehouse, Lead Research Nurse at
The James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. This year, Hazel Smith, Research Coordinator at
Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin is helping to co-ordinate the tweetfest, which has some amazing chats lined up!
The aim of #WhyWeDoResearch is to raise awareness of research and opportunities for patients, carers, healthcare professionals and members of the public to participate, engage and become involved in research. The campaign has reached over 22 countries since its inception, with over 250 million impressions and 150,000 tweets.
Using Twitter as a platform for promoting the campaign has enabled rapid and global connectivity, and the tweetfest exists to celebrate healthcare research across the globe. It aims to give patients, carers, healthcare professionals and members of the public a platform to say why they do what they do, and is used as a mechanism to share research opportunities for everyone. As such, the content of each tweetchat has been carefully selected to provide as wide a coverage as possible.
To join, all you need to do is type
#WhyWeDoResearch into the Twitter search box at the time of each chat and the expert host(s) will launch their first question at the specified time. If this sounds new to you, there are lots of great resources out there to help you to get to grips with Twitter. I would recommend the
#WeCommunities Twitterversity guidance if you would like to brush up your Twitter skills. There are also lots of useful materials about social media on my
website, which you may find helpful.
So, here is the exciting line up for the #WhyWeDoResearch Tweetfest. While it may be impossible to participate in them all, you will certainly be able to read the tweets afterwards to at least see the conversation.
Navigating the ethics system for your research studies
I hope to see as many of you as possible at the tweet chat that I’m hosting on Monday 14 May 2018 between 3 pm and 4 pm (GMT+1, BST), which is all about navigating the ethics system for your research studies.
The chat is pitched for everyone with an interest in healthcare – including patients, carers, healthcare professionals and researchers. Hopefully, we’ll be able to dispel some of the myths surrounding ethics committees, allowing open dialogue and debate about some of the different aspects of seeking ethical approval for research studies. This should be great for patients and carers working with researchers applying for research ethics approval, as well as those researchers navigating the process themselves – after all, no matter our experience, we can always learn something new! Here are the questions so that you can start to prepare for the chat!
