Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Wellcome Trust Monitor is a unique survey of UK adults' (and in some waves, young people's) views around science and biomedical research. The findings are representative of the UK population and provide fresh and significant insights to inform science communication practice and how research priorities might be shaped, building a better understanding of the social context of biomedical research. The survey is repeated every three years and a large proportion of the questions recur in each wave. The aim of this tracking survey is to build a high-quality evidence base that explores trends and variations across time on both general scientific and medical themes and specific societal issues. This robust study also seeks to develop a more systematic approach to describing and understanding current interest in, attitudes towards and knowledge of science and biomedical research. There is flexibility within each wave to include a number of additional questions to explore new and topical areas of interest. Further information is available from the Wellcome Trust Monitor webpage.
The Wellcome Trust Monitor 3, 2015 is the third survey in the series and was conducted by Ipsos MORI. This wave of the survey was designed to provide comparability with findings from Waves 1 and 2. The survey also aimed to build on previous waves by refining the questionnaire and approach to maximise the level and quality of response from respondents. This wave differed from previous ones in that young people were excluded from the sample.
Main Topics:
The third Wellcome Trust Monitor questionnaire built heavily on previous ones, and comprised questions on the following topics:awareness of and interest in medical research;medical research information seeking;trust in sources of information on medical research;passive experiences of medical research;expectations and for medical research;scientific literacy;involvement in medical research;perceived understanding of GM and antibiotic resistance;awareness of genetic testing;areas of medical research interest;visits to science museums and other informal science activities;value of science in daily life and confidence making medical/health decisions;willingness to share medical records and genetic information for research purposes;interest in hearing from scientists;knowledge and behaviour around taking antibiotics;factors people consider in choosing their food and drink;public understanding of drug development.
Multi-stage stratified random sample
Face-to-face interview
