The right participants can make a research project. The wrong ones can make it memorable for entirely different reasons.
That’s why we combine Acumen’s fieldwork expertise with the in-house recruitment capabilities of our sister company, Research Opinions. Together, we recruit engaged, properly screened participants for qualitative, quantitative, healthcare and specialist research across the UK.
From everyday consumers and business decision-makers to healthcare professionals, people living with rare conditions and seldom-heard communities, we build the recruitment approach around the brief. Because the right people aren’t always sitting neatly in a database waiting to be found.
Our experienced team works with household brands, leading agencies and independent market research companies across the UK and beyond. We bring specialist knowledge to every brief, with dedicated teams managing recruitment for consumer research, B2B fieldwork, healthcare studies, human factors, usability testing and medical research.
That experience helps us spot potential pressure points early, ask the questions that need asking and create a recruitment plan that works in the real world, not just on paper.
Sometimes the trickiest part of a project is knowing where to begin. Our team can support you from the earliest stages, helping to sense-check recruitment criteria, identify potential challenges and shape a realistic approach before fieldwork gets under way.
Once the project is live, you’ll have a dedicated project manager providing open, consistent communication throughout. No disappearing acts, no carefully vague updates and no leaving you to wonder what is happening behind the scenes.
Some audiences are unlikely to be reached through conventional panels alone. Others may be digitally excluded, underrepresented in research, geographically dispersed or defined by several very specific criteria.
Alongside our UK-wide Research Opinions community, we use targeted outreach, offline recruitment, community connections and a trusted network of specialist recruiters to find the people your research genuinely needs. People aren’t inherently hard to reach; sometimes recruitment simply needs to look in the right places.
We take the time to understand the purpose of your study, not just the numbers required. This allows us to develop the right sourcing and screening approach, anticipate potential risks and recruit participants who can make a meaningful contribution.
Whether the brief involves a broad consumer sample or six overlapping criteria and an audience nobody is entirely certain exists, we’ll give it the same care, curiosity and attention to detail.
We take participant quality seriously, from initial sourcing and screening through to confirmation and attendance. Our bespoke recruitment systems, fraud detection processes and three-stage confirmation approach help us verify eligibility, protect the integrity of the research and keep participants engaged.
Research Opinions’ Excellent Trustpilot rating also reflects the experience we provide for participants, including clear communication, helpful support and reliable incentive payments. Because participants who feel informed and valued tend to arrive better prepared to take part.
We manage the majority of our recruitment in-house, including more than 80% of recruitment for qualitative projects and almost all recruitment for healthcare studies. This gives us greater oversight of participant quality, communication and fit throughout the process.
Our in-house team has access to Research Opinions’ UK-wide online community of more than 260,000 participants. But we aren’t limited to a database. We also recruit through targeted digital campaigns, offline outreach, community networks and a trusted group of independent recruiters across the UK.
This blended approach allows us to reach broad consumer audiences as well as niche, specialist, hard-to-reach and seldom-heard participants.
Good recruitment involves considerably more than finding a name that matches the screener. Our team can manage the practical, technical and compliance details around your participants and fieldwork, giving you one less complicated thing to think about.
Sound like the type of recruitment partner you need?
Contact the team to find out how we can help.
