Illustrative planning tool

Recruitment Cost Calculator

Estimate how many participants you may need to recruit and screen, and what your recruitment activity could cost under your current assumptions.

Results are illustrative and should be adapted to your study context.

Build your scenario

Study assumptions

Target retained participants

Recruitment duration (months)

Monthly study running/staff cost (£)

Months of study running/staff cost Defaults to the recruitment duration, but you can change it.

Screen failure rate (%) For example, 40% means 40 out of every 100 screened participants are not recruited.

Drop-out rate (%) Default reflects roughly 88% retention reported in NIHR-funded trial reviews. Walters et al. 2017; Jacques et al. 2022.

Per participant incentive (£)

Number of sites

Site setup cost per site (£)

Include 25% overhead?

Yes, include overhead

No backend. No tracking. No user input is stored or sent anywhere.

Using the default assumptions shown above.

Your baseline recruitment picture

Estimated recruitment cost under your current assumptions

£0

0 Total participants to recruit, adjusted for drop-out

0 Total participants to screen, adjusted for screen failure

£0 Cost per recruited participant

£0 Cost per retained participant

This is the baseline picture before any EngageBase-supported planning uplift is applied.

See the planning upside

How EngageBase-supported planning could change the picture

EngageBase helps research teams plan recruitment, retention and inclusion by matching your study to evidence-informed strategies and practical actions.

This model shows what could happen if better upfront planning improved recruitment speed by 8% and reduced drop-out by 5%. It shows how small improvements could shorten recruitment time, reduce replacement recruitment and lower overall costs.

£0 Illustrative cost saving with EngageBase-supported planning

0.0 months Illustrative recruitment duration with EngageBase-supported planning

Planned recruitment trajectory
EngageBase-supported trajectory
Total recruitment target

Optional cost breakdown

This section shows the cost components used in the total estimate.

Cost item	Value

Disclaimer

This calculator provides an illustrative estimate only. It does not guarantee recruitment, retention or financial outcomes. Results depend on study design, participant population, delivery setting, implementation quality and wider operational factors.