The #WhyWeDoResearch campaign was established in December 2014 by Claire Whitehouse (nee Gibbs) (@ClaireW_UK), Lead Nurse for Research at The James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (JPUH). The aim is to raise research awareness and opportunities to staff, patients and the public, and to start a conversation about research between all involved.

Within five months of launching #WhyWeDoResearch it had reached 14 countries and gained 2,364 participants. #WhyWeDoResearch now has over 400 million impressions, is used by over 45,000 Twitter accounts and has a reach of 23 countries.

Through the Past Chair, Hazel A Smith, the Irish Research Nurses & Midwives (IRNM) is the first Irish collaborator for #WhyWeDoResearch.

Website: WhyWeDoResearch Website
Twitter Campaign: http://twitter.com/hashtag/whywedoresearch

#WhyWeDoResearch Tweetfests

Each year to mark International Clinical Trials Day #WhyWeDoResearch hosts a tweetfest.

A tweetfest is a festival of tweets! It is a week, or more, full of #WhyWeDoResearch tweetchats covering all sorts of areas in healthcare.

The first tweetfest was held in 2016: http://whywedoresearch.weebly.com/tweetfest-16th—20th-may-2016.html 

And was also held in 2017 (http://whywedoresearch.weebly.com/tweetfest2017.html#), 2018 (http://whywedoresearch.weebly.com/tweetfest-2018.html#) and 2019 (http://whywedoresearch.weebly.com/tweetfest-2019.html)

Publications

Yhnell et al (2019) #WhyWeDoResearch: Raising research awareness and opportunities for patients, public and staff through Twitter Research for All, 3(1), 7-17

Whitehourse, CL (13 May 2019) #WhyWeDoResearch—raising research awareness and opportunities for patients, public, and staff  BMJ Opinion

Whitehouse, CL. and Smith, HA. (2018) The Whitehouse Report. The Florence Nightingale Foundation

Gibbs CL. Greaves, A. Keeling, M. Gaw, A. and O’Neill, F. (2015). Clinical Research Benefits go Viral via Twitter. Nursing Times. 111(19), 16-17.

#WhyWeDoResearch Videos