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David P French, Lisa M Miles, Diana Elbourne, Andrew Farmer, Martin Gulliford, Louise Locock, Stephen Sutton, Jim McCambridge & the MERIT Collaborative GroupBowerPeterUniversity of ManchesterClemesStacyUniversity of LoughboroughConnerMarkUniversity of LeedsDundasRuthUniversity of GlasgowElbourneDianaLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical MedicineEldridgeSandraQueen Mary University of LondonFarmerAndrewUniversity of OxfordFrenchDavidUniversity of ManchesterGambleCarrolUniversity of LiverpoolGullifordMartinKing’s College LondonKeeFrankQueen’s University BelfastLeylandAlastairUniversity of GlasgowLocockLouiseUniversity of AberdeenLynchRebeccaKing’s College LondonMacLennanGraemeUniversity of AberdeenMcCambridgeJimUniversity of YorkMilesLisaUniversity of ManchesterRowleySamuel CSMedical Research CouncilSharplesLindaLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical MedicineSniehottaFalko FNewcastle UniversitySnowdonClaireLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical MedicineSprangersMirjamAmsterdam University Medical CentersSuttonStephenUniversity of Cambridge.

David P French ^1,*, Lisa M Miles ¹, Diana Elbourne ², Andrew Farmer ³, Martin Gulliford ⁴, Louise Locock ⁵, Stephen Sutton ⁶, Jim McCambridge ⁷, ^†

¹ Manchester Centre for Health Psychology, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
² Department of Medical Statistics, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
³ Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
⁴ School of Population Health and Environmental Sciences, King’s College London, London, UK
⁵ Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
⁶ Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
⁷ Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, UK
^* Corresponding author Email: david.french@manchester.ac.uk

^† The MERIT Collaborative Group are listed in Appendix 1.

The MERIT Collaborative Group are listed in Appendix 1.

Declared competing interests of authors: David P French was a member of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research Funding Board (2015–19). Andrew Farmer is Director of the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme (2020 to present) and is an NIHR Senior Investigator. Martin Gulliford was a member of the NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research (HSDR) Funding Committee (2016–19). Louise Locock was a member of the NIHR HSDR Funding Committee (2014–19).