Join Us: Making it easy to take part in research that matters to you  

Join Us is a national, free, not for profit community-centred research register.  Led by the George Institute (a global health research centre) and the University of NSW (UNSW), Join Us links people in our community to research studies that matter to them.  

The Challenge  

Australia is a world leader in health research. Australian researchers have helped people all over the world by finding new ways to treat and prevent different diseases and illnesses.   

A big challenge of doing research in Australia is finding people who can take part and want to take part.   

The Opportunity  

Many Australians want to take part in research that matters to them, but most don’t know how to find studies or how to take part. By connecting interested Australians with health research studies, we can help researchers provide s and life changing health care.  Health research looks at diseases, treatments, and health systems to make medical care better and improve public health.

Our Mission  

Join Us aims to improve Australian researchers by helping community members take part in research studies. 

Helping to make faster research progress can lead to more lives changed and a healthier Australia. 

Ready to make a difference?  

Join Us is open to all Australians aged 18 year and over. Signing up to Join Us is free, simple, and only takes a few minutes through our easy-to-use online platform. You will only receive invitations to research that matters to you. You can choose how many times each year you want to be invited to take part in research. You can leave the register at any time.  

How it works  

When you sign up to Join Us, your details are used to match you to health research studies. You can be matched to research studies based on your age, sex/gender and whether you do or do not have certain health conditions or illnesses.  

You will receive research study invitations through your email address. This invitation will include information about the research study; what the study is about, how to take part, and any other information.   

You can then decide whether the research study is a good match for you and if you would like to take part.  

The Join Us register helps find people to take part in studies about many research topics, such as:  

• healthy ageing 
• mental health 
• women’s health 
• heart health 
• cancer research and more.  

Taking part in research studies can look like: 

• Doing online surveys 
• Talking about your experience with a researcher 
• Taking part in a clinical research study 

By taking part in research, you may be able to get: 

• treatments 
• therapies  
• public health programs and services.  

Some research studies may offer payment for costs such as travel or parking. Gift vouchers are sometimes offered for taking part in a research study.  

You do not have to take part in any research study that Join Us invites you to. 

Data and information security  

The security and privacy of your data is very important to Join Us. Your data and participation in Join Us are confidential, no one will know that you have signed up to Join Us unless you tell them. 

After signing up to Join Us, your contact details are separated from your health-related details for added security.  

Your contact details are held in a database managed by The George Institute for Global Health. Your health-related details are moved to and stored in a separate database managed by the University of New South Wales (UNSW).  

Both databases are secure and encrypted, meet industry and Government data security standards and are in Australia. To strengthen data security, no staff member can access both datasets.