Citizen Panel two-year research project under way 

The UK LLC Citizen Panel is a 2-year research project funded by the Medical and Research Council (MRC) and the Economic and Research Council (ESRC) that aims to deliver a new methodology of involving diverse members of the public and engaging citizens in research governance. The Panel is the first of its kind public assessment of the UK LLC data access and review process and aims to provide a feedback loop for decision-making in the UK LLC linked longitudinal research programme. 

The Citizen Panel is co-led by Dr Lidis Garbovan (Research Fellow), with support from Robin Flaig (UK LLC Co-Director), Sarah Cunningham-Burley (Professor of Medical and Family Sociology, Co-head of Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society at the University of Edinburgh).  

The Panel is co-designed with a Steering Group of 5 public members made up from participants in UK LLC partner Longitudinal Population Studies and the UK LLC Public Involvement Programme. The full Citizen Panel includes members of minoritised and under-represented groups in Longitudinal Population Studies and was set up in September 2024, operating in two rounds.  

The first round consisted of five meetings, four online and one Hybrid Workshop held in Birmingham, on 31 January 2025. At the end of round one, the Panel provided a set of recommendations to UK LLC that were reviewed in the second round with the Panel and UK LLC management in a dialogic format. 

The second round of the Citizen Panel commenced in April 2024, with five meetings, four online and one Hybrid Workshop held in Edinburgh on 25 June 2025. The Panel’s recommendations from the second round will be made available in the coming months. A series of outputs, including blogposts (Blog | UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration), briefings, academic articles and creative outputs have been co-produced with the Panel members and new outputs are underway.  

Read more about the UK LLC Public Involvement Programme.