Instructions for participants

The THRIVING Food Futures research hub is a group of researchers from the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Strathclyde, Warwick, Queen Mary University London and City St George’s University London, funded by the UK government through UKRI and NIHR. The hub is a meeting space for the public, policymakers and academics to co-design and evaluate policies for healthy, sustainable diets. We aim to find policy solutions that reduce the carbon footprint of our diets whilst maximising health co-benefits.

We are developing research apps that mirror real food delivery platforms to test interventions and collect data. In this study, we want to test our first app, THRIVING-Deliveroo, and use it to learn about how and why people order food online.

Participating in the study just means that you use our app, rather than the native Deliveroo app, for all your Deliveroo orders for the next 8 weeks. There is no minimum or maximum amount of orders you need to do. We simply ask that you place your usual Deliveroo orders through our app. You will be compensated through a Prolific bonus payment for your participation.

For 8 weeks, please place your Deliveroo orders through the THRIVING-Deliveroo app instead of the standard Deliveroo app. You should use the app for your normal food ordering habits; there is no requirement to order more often than you usually would.

Yes. You will still order from Deliveroo as normal. The THRIVING app simply allows us to collect information about your orders for research purposes.

Yes. You will need to pay for your orders as usual. These payments are taken directly by Deliveroo, without any intervention from the researchers.

You can earn £10 for each 4-week period during which the app remains installed and you place at least one order through it, up to £20 for 8 weeks of participation. You will receive this compensation as a Prolific bonus payment at the end of the 4-week period. If you order food from Deliveroo regularly and use our app to do it, you can expect a £10 bonus payment about 4–5 weeks after the time that you installed the app, and another one 4–5 weeks after that.

The app registers all your clicks on Deliveroo, and we will use this information to check how many times and when you placed food orders. There is no need to submit receipts or screenshots. Note that you will receive compensation only if you actually place orders; it is not enough to browse the app without ordering the food.

The study ends 8 weeks after you have installed the app. You can expect your second bonus payment soon after, assuming you have been ordering food through the app. You will also receive another survey invitation on Prolific, asking about your experience using the app, which is compensated separately. After that, you will no longer be compensated, and you may uninstall the app if you wish, but you are also welcome to keep using it.

We collect your survey responses and information about the food orders placed through the research app. We do not collect unnecessary personal information.

Yes. You will need to log in using the email address associated with your Deliveroo account.

No. The login process is entirely between you and Deliveroo. The research team cannot see your email address, password, or any other information you enter during login.

Yes. Any Deliveroo benefits or deals that are available on your account should continue to work when you use the research app.

Yes. To remain in the study and receive the study payments, you should keep the app installed and use it for your Deliveroo orders throughout the study period.

Participation is voluntary. You can stop at any time by uninstalling the app. If you wish for your data to be deleted, you can contact us through Prolific.

Please send us a message through Prolific and a member of the research team will be happy to help.