The NIHR Research Support Services paper on outcome indicators outlines proposals for measuring performance against a balanced scorecard.
The Government's Plan for Growth, published in March 2011, announced the NIHR Research Support Services. The Plan for Growth said:
"At a local level, the Government will radically transform the incentives for efficiency in research initiation and delivery. In May, the Government will launch a framework of good practice and standard procedures called the NIHR Research Support Services to facilitate consistent local research management and greatly improve performance. NHS Trusts which adopt these standards will stop unnecessary duplication of checks. They will publish metrics regularly on their performance. They will have access to NIHR financial support for these activities. For clinical trials, the NIHR will from 2012 publish outcomes against public NIHR benchmarks, including an initial benchmark of 70 days or less from the time a Provider receives a valid research protocol to the time when that Provider recruits the first patient for that study.
In future NIHR funding to providers of NHS services will become conditional on meeting benchmarks, including a 70 day benchmark to recruit first patients for trials. The NIHR will make this a condition of new contracts from autumn 2011 and performance will affect funding from 2013.
In addition, the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) will be working with Trusts implementing the NIHR Research Support Services and other partners to embed nationally the good practice identified in the NIHR CRN North West Exemplar Programme and elsewhere. This demonstrated that, even with the current excessively complex research regulation, the UK is capable of delivering clinical trial set up times to rival the best in Europe. This showed the impact of:
- a visible commitment from Trust Chief Executives to research within their organisations;
- rapid escalation and prompt management of extraordinary issues; and
- executive oversight of performance metrics."
The NIHR has adopted the Research Support Services Framework for immediate use.
Please read the NIHR Research Support Services Framework document before using the guidelines and tools. The Framework document provides important background information, context and instructions.
Download all NIHR Research Support Services Framework documents (the ZIP file will extract all the documents in the right order) or download individual documents.
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (updated May 2011)