Can I take part in the research?
Thank you for your interest in our research. We are currently looking for people in any of the following groups who would like to take part in a one-to-one interview with our researchers:
- Donor conceived adults who have used, or been impacted by, online DNA testing.
- Parents through donor conception who have searched, or considered searching, for, or unintentionally discovered, their child(ren)’s donor relatives via online DNA testing.
- Sperm, egg or embryo donors who have searched for, or unintentionally discovered, donor relatives via online DNA testing.
We are interested in talking to people from all different backgrounds and who have varied experiences of donor conception and online DNA testing.
If you consider yourself part of one of these groups, are over 18 and currently resident in the UK, and would like to take part, please complete our short expression of interest online form or contact Leah or Lucy. We will be happy to talk through any questions you may have.
Taking part in a research interview
Our research interviews are informal and more like a conversation than a survey. They tend to last between one and two hours but it is very dependent on what you would like to say and we can arrange them at a time and place to suit you. Depending on your own preferences and taking account of any restrictions in place at the time, we can either arrange a face-to-face interview, or a telephone/video call interview. The researcher will request your permission to audio record the interview in order that we have an accurate record of our conversation. At the end of the interview you will be asked to fill in a very short questionnaire about yourself.
You can find more detailed information about taking part in the study via our Participant Information Sheet for User Interviews (PISUI) UoM (PDF) or by contacting a member of the research team who will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Participation is anonymous and confidential
What you say in the interview will be anonymised and your participation in the project is confidential. Any information you give us will be held securely and treated in strict confidence. We will not use real names, or other identifying details, in our publications or reports. With your permission, only anonymised data will be archived for use by other researchers and for training and teaching purposes. However, you can still take part in the project if you do not want your anonymised interview transcript to be archived.
This project has been approved by the University of Liverpool Ethics Committee whose approval was subsequently accepted by the University of Manchester Research Ethics Committee (see our news page for more information). It will follow the Economic and Social Research Council’s guidance on ethical practice. You can view this at the ESRC website:
If you would like more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Leah or Lucy.
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