Key role for health research in the Government's Plan for Growth     

In the Budget 2011, the Chancellor launched the Government's 'Plan for Growth', which sets out reforms in areas that act as barriers to enterprise.

The Healthcare and Life Sciences section of the Plan for Growth highlights that health research has a key role in the national economy as well as in improving health and care. In the Plan, the Government makes a series of announcements that is of great significance for the health R&D community and for the NIHR in the coming years.

Simpler regulation of health research at the national level

• The Government will combine and streamline approvals under a health research regulatory agency.
• The agency will be established in the first instance as a Special Health Authority, with the National Research Ethics Service as its core, during 2011.

Consistent national system of research governance

• The agency will work closely with the MHRA to create a unified approval process for clinical trials.
• The agency and the MHRA will promote proportionate standards for compliance and inspection.
• The MHRA will pilot and promote a proportionate interpretation of EU law on clinical trials.

Consistent and professional local research management

• From autumn 2011, NIHR funding will become conditional on organisations playing their part in the national research governance system.
• The Government will launch a framework of standard procedures and good practice for local health research management - the NIHR Research Support Services framework - by May 2011.

Transparent and accountable performance

• Recipients of NIHR funding will regularly publish metrics on their performance in initiating and delivering health research.
• When deciding on funding, the NIHR will take account of performance against public NIHR benchmarks, including an initial benchmark of 70 days from receipt of a valid research protocol to recruitment of the first participant in a study.

Transparent information about NIHR activities and funding

• The NIHR will bring together diverse resources and present the information in a single portal on the NIHR web site so that it is much more accessible.

Accessible information for patients and the public

• The NIHR will launch a UK Clinical Trials Gateway, which by 2012, will make it easier for patients, their doctors and their families to find out about trials that are relevant to them.

A consensus on e-health records research

• The Government will bring forward plans for a research data service so that e-health record data can create a unique position for the UK in health research.

Formation of translational research partnerships to support collaboration with the life sciences industry in early and exploratory development of new drugs and other interventions

• The NIHR Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure (NOCRI) will co-ordinate the establishment of translational research partnerships, building on the existing pilot Therapeutic Capability Cluster initiative, and working with other funding partners including charities.
• The NIHR Biomedical Research Centres and Units, to be designated in summer 2011 after an open competition with international peer review and in which the NIHR will invest £775m, will form the basis of these partnerships.  The translational research partnerships will be a national initiative, involving other centres of excellence in the UK, and offer a unique international approach to support open innovation and collaboration with the life sciences industry.
• NOCRI will provide a single point of contact for industry engagement with the partnerships; model agreements will be deployed to support faster contracting between the partnerships and industry.

The NIHR will work with partners to plan for the implementation of these important policy developments.

23 March 2011