Collaborate with us to advance mental health research

What’s the opportunity?

We are looking for people to be part of a new Experience-led Public Advisory Group that will meet regularly to advise and guide the development phases of the OpenSAFELY-Talking Therapies programme. In the future, you will help with the prioritisation of research study applications to the programme to help ensure that this prioritisation is informed by the needs of people with lived experience.

The group will play an important role in OpenSAFELY-Talking Therapies platform design and delivery by providing feedback and advice from the perspective of patients and the public.

Who are we and what is OpenSAFELY?

We are the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science based at the University of Oxford. We build live, interactive, data-driven tools and services which show how data can be used to improve lives. One of these tools is OpenSAFELY, a software platform for analysing large, sensitive datasets – without compromising any of the secrets inside.

Instead of moving or copying sensitive health data, OpenSAFELY lets researchers run their analyses within a secure environment where the data is already stored. This means personal details like your name or address are never shared with researchers. The data stays under tight control at all times.

It was originally developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to answer urgent health questions quickly and safely. Since then, it has continued to support important research into public health issues, like how well medications work or how different communities access care.

What’s the OpenSAFELY-Talking Therapies programme?

We have received £7m funding from the Wellcome Trust to develop OpenSAFELY to enable the analysis of NHS Talking Therapies services, such as counselling and guided self-help. The funding will enable researchers for the first time to analyse the anonymised mental health data in a highly secure setting. Incorporating this data into the OpenSAFELY platform would help answer “many vital questions about mental health treatment”, including how talking therapies affect long-term health outcomes and the best way to deliver services.

This has the potential to fundamentally change how mental health care is delivered to patients in the NHS.

We wrote a blog about it at the time it was announced.

Who are you looking for?

We are looking for individuals with lived experience of:

• Accessing Talking Therapies services
• Supporting someone/people who have accessed Talking Therapies services (or have a mental health need)
• People in communities most affected by poor mental health
• People who are underrepresented in research and services
• People in communities less represented in Talking Therapies data, these include people from a Black or Bangladeshi background. We acknowledge that there are also other underrepresented communities and we welcome applications from them.
• Groups impacted by service/research (e.g. criminal justice system, schools)

We are looking to select 7-10 people from across England.

What will be provided?

• Reimbursement of people’s time (NIHR standard rate of £25/h)
• Provide participation support such as help with taking part in online meetings as needed
• Emotional support built-in to the offer, either during sessions or signposted

In addition, members will receive training on:

• Strategic and national context
• Basics of OpenSAFELY
• What is data, what does it look like, how can this group interpret and comment on this kind of research?
• Ethics, GitHub, open source explanations

To ensure you are supported, we will regularly check-in with the group to ensure understanding and what else could be covered.

We would like to work with people from a diverse range of communities and identities. In particular, we would like to hear from people from groups who have been historically underrepresented in research design, such as those with disabilities, in minority groups, migrants etc. If you are part of one of these groups and would like to discuss how we can support your involvement please do get in touch.

I’m interested! Who do I contact?

We are so pleased you are interested in this opportunity!

Please use this online form to submit an expression of interest. Alternatively, if you would prefer to complete a Microsoft Word version of the form or have any other questions, feel free to contact the team on ostalkingtherapies@phc.ox.ac.uk.

What’s the deadline to apply?

We will close the expression of interest window on the 9th October 2025. Depending on the number of responses we receive, we may shorten or extend the opening window.

Please be aware we will need to limit the number of attendees in order to ensure all who take part have the opportunity to participate. We ask that you complete this expression of interest form so we can try to invite a diverse group who can speak to the experiences and views of a range of different groups and demographics.

We particularly welcome people from seldom heard backgrounds and people who have not yet had the chance to be involved in research. We will prioritise such people when selecting people for our group.

Thanks for taking an interest!

If you would like to speak to someone about the project and opportunity, feel free to contact us by email on ostalkingtherapies@phc.ox.ac.uk

(All of the information collected via this form will only be used for selecting members for this group. It will not be shared with any third party. We will only use the data you provide in this form to contact you about being part of the advisory group. Information will be deleted once the group has been selected.)