| Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI | Responsible for decision making | Stakeholders drive the research and serve as leaders or co-leaders of the project. They are responsible for all aspects of the study and are directly involved in all decision making | Partnered research (multiple PIs), community-based participatory research, patient powered research network | 1–2 |
| Research Partner or Team Member | Part of team making decisions | Stakeholders are members of the research team and have direct involvement in the design, conduct, and dissemination of research; including helping to understand and make decisions on the return of research results | Community-engaged research, engaged team science | 2–6 |
| Governance or Advisory Group | Provides oversight or guidance to make decisions | Stakeholders consider feedback and findings on participants' needs, priorities, and values and provide guidance to the research team to make decisions on the return of research results | Advisory boards, councils and committees | 4–25 |
| Consultants, Interviewees, Panelists, Reviewers, etc. | Provides detailed input on participant needs, preferences and values | Stakeholders serve in specific, time-limited roles and provide detailed input on participants' needs, preferences, and values on the return of research results | Focus groups, semi-structured interviews, Delphi techniques, community engagement studios | 10–100 |
| Knowledge Users and Experiencers (general population affected by condition being studied) | Provides input on participant needs, preferences and values | Stakeholders engage using methods designed to reach a large number of people and provide perspectives on participants' needs, preferences, and values related to return of research results | Surveys, online polling, crowdsourcing, social media, town hall meetings | 100+ |
