Objective: Obtaining patient permissions for research contact and for surplus tissue use as part of routine clinical practice can improve research participation. This study aims to investigate the difference in patient permissions for use of surplus tissues, and for direct contact for research, using two different methods of solicitation. Methods: An opt-in, population-based approach for gathering research permissions was implemented in two methods. The first method, applied a 2 –item patient questionnaire delivered through the EHR patient portal. The questionnaire composed of two questions 1) whether de-identified surplus specimens may be used for research) and 2) whether patients could be contacted about research. In the second method, the same questionnaire was physically presented in clinic within the clinical workflow. We used 1 to 1 propensity score matching and multivariate logistic regression to estimate the odds of obtaining permission and the difference between the two methods of solicitation. Results: The propensity score model matched 8044 observations (4114 submissions in each group). Among the in-clinic submission group, 70.13% provided permission for surplus tissue compared to 66.65% in the patient portal submission group (OR=1.20; 95% CI 1.09-1.32; p<0.001). Permission for future research contact was similar among in-clinic (65.07%) and patient portal submission (66.65%) groups (OR=0.94; 95% CI 0.85-1.03; p=0.175). These trends were consistent among European Americans and African American patients. However, among patients of other race, higher permission for both future contact (OR=0.58; 95% CI 0.39-0.86; p<0.007) and surplus tissue use (OR=0.65; 95% CI 0.43-0.97; p=0.036) was observed among patient portal submission.