Clinical Research Systems

Latest News:

Research Capability Programme’s Health Research Support Service (HRSS) funding is suspended and to be considered in the Comprehensive Spending Review.  But Pilot Programme continues as described by Peter Knight at the NHS-HE Forum on 19th May 2010.

In recent years there has been a major push to improve the UK's competiveness in clinical research and many initiatives to coordinate efforts nationally. "The Review and Refresh of Bioscience 2015" summarises what has happened since the publication of the original "Bioscience 2015" report in 2003 as follows:

"Build a Mutually Advantageous Collaboration between the NHS and Industry for Patient Benefit

Since the publication of Bioscience 2015 there has been a sustained commitment by Government, working with key stakeholders, to improve the health research environment and address the R&D issues…….
Key vehicles for change include:

• The UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC)
• New Health Department strategies, including Best Research for Best Health (BRfBH)
• National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) ;and
• The Office for Strategic Co-operation of Health Research (OSCHR), which has ensured increased resources for NIHR and the Medical Research Council (MRC).

Meanwhile, major investment by the UK Health Departments has established the UK Clinical Research network (UKCRN) - a performance-managed network of professional and dedicated research staff working in the NHS. This provides the infrastructure to deliver high quality clinical trials and other well designed studies funded by the public, charity and industry sectors. UK-wide coordination is provided by the NIHR Network Coordinating Centre
In order to support earlier stages of the translational pathway, the UK is rapidly developing a platform of world class facilities for the conduct of experimental medicine and translational research. These have been funded by a coalition of funding bodies from the Government and charity sector. They include: NIHR Biomedical Research Centres and Units, Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facilities , NIHR/Cancer research UK Experimental Medicine Centres and major infrastructure investment through the MRC
In what has the potential to become an unique selling point for the UK, the NIHR/NHS Connecting for Health Research Capability Programme has been initiated to provide the necessary infrastructure to federate and facilitate access to high quality NHS electronic patient record data for use in research."

Other Links

Links on specific developments of direct interest to the NHS-HE Forum:

• National Institute for Health Research – governance, advice & ethics systems including the Integrated Research Application System (IRAS) and the NIHR Coordinated System for gaining NHS Permission (NIHR CSP)
• National Institute for Health Research - systems development
• There are a series of research collaborations in Scotland