As part of our commitment to facilitating dialogue between researchers, decision-makers and affected communities, the Centre for Health Policy and its members are involved in several projects that use ‘citizens’ juries’.
Citizens’ juries were developed in the USA in the 1980s. They are a form of ‘participatory action research’ that involve facilitating deliberative dialogue with members of the public about a particular issue. Randomly selected members of the public are invited to act as ‘jury members’ and to hear from a range of expert ‘witnesses’ on the topic of discussion.
The jury members are encouraged to work together to ask the ‘witnesses’ questions about the evidence and ideas they have put forward and to challenge any claims that they are unsure about. Citizens’ Juries usually last several days and, towards the end of this period, jury members are encouraged to work together to try to reach a ‘verdict’ on the topic of discussion.
Below, you can find more details about previous Citizens’ Juries that Centre for Health Policy members have been involved in, as well as current projects that will be using citizens’ juries.
Current projects involving Citizens’ Juries
In 2026 and 2027, the Strathclyde THRIVING Food Futures team will host a series of 2-day citizens’ juries across the UK to explore the most promising food system policy options to achieve both Net Zero and health co-benefits. How do people respond to evidence about the harms of beef, or the benefits of beans? Why are some arguments persuasive, while others fall flat? These events will engage more than 80 members of the public, with diverse backgrounds and views, to hear evidence from experts and stakeholders, and then to discuss options and make recommendations to policymakers.
In the ESRC Equalise Centre, we are focusing on health inequalities, looking at how experiences of work, learning and care influence health outcomes. In involves a series of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research projects, being undertaken in discussion with partners in government and in the third sector, and members of community groups. As part of Equalise, we will be running a set of citizens' juries across the UK in 2027 and 2028, which will discuss the research findings over several days and will develop policy recommendations to address health inequalities.
Past Citizens’ Juries
Citizens’ Juries held in Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester in July 2016 explored what members of the public think about health inequalities and potential policy responses to these inequalities. These juries were funded via a Philip Leverhulme Prize that was awarded to CHP Co-Director, Professor Kat (Katherine) Smith, back in 2014. Find out more about these juries.
Two, linked Citizens’ Juries held in Glasgow in Summer 2024 explored how members of the public think governments should respond to the unequal impacts of unhealthy commodity industries (the alcohol industry, the tobacco industry and the processed food industry) and their products. These juries were part of the UKPRP SPECTRUM Collaboration. The data are currently being analysed, alongside plans to run similar citizens’ juries in Doncaster and Wakefield, in the north of England. Find out more about SPECTRUM.