Patient Recruitment Centre: Leicester

Patient Recruitment Centre (PRC): Leicester is dedicated to setting up and delivering late phase commercial clinical trials in the NHS at pace and scale. It is hosted by the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL), which provides core services to over 1 million people and specialist services to between 2-3 million people.

In the last 5 years, UHL has supported 401 commercial studies. In 2020-21, it recruited 195,425 participants into clinical research studies compared with an average of approximately 54,000 participants per year in other years across the trust.

It is 1 of 5 PRCs funded by the NIHR.

By attracting more commercial research to the UK, we also increase opportunities for our patients to access cutting edge treatment and therapies that are not yet widely available through the NHS.

Explore PRC: Leicester

The PRC hosts research active staff in all specialties and world-renowned experts in:

cardiovascular and respiratory conditions
diabetes
cancer
obesity
renal medicine
infectious diseases

In 2021, its host trust received a £450 million reconfiguration package from the UK government to invest in state-of-the-art facilities.

Onsite services include:

a clinical trials pharmacy
full pathology services
sample preparation laboratories
imaging (CT/MRI/interventional radiology)
a DEXA scanner
a fully-equipped gym for exercise interventions, cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic assessments

It has data sharing agreements and networks in place with local partners in primary care to support rapid, high volume patient recruitment.

100% of its commercial contract trials recruited to time and target in the financial year 2021 to 2022.

The city of Leicester is the first non-white majority population in the UK. Its regional demographics offer unique opportunities for research:

55% of Leicester City residents are from black and minority ethnic backgrounds
61% of the city’s population is under 40 years.
children and young people make up a quarter of the population
80% of the wider Leicestershire county is classed as rural

Its host organisation is one of the largest acute trusts in England and has excellent relationships with several pharmaceutical companies including Novartis, Roche, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Medtronic and Sanofi. It also has partnership agreements with major Contract Research Organisations Parexel, PPD and IQVIA.

The PRC works with GP practices, community health partners and social care organisations across the health and social care system to identify patients who may be eligible for clinical trials.

PRC: Leicester offers opportunities to take part in late phase commercial research.

Safety, health and wellbeing are paramount. All clinical trials run through the PRC have been carefully checked by an independent research ethics committee. The PRC is fully accessible, with lifts from the ground floor to our reception area. All travel expenses are reimbursed.

If you are interested in health research in Leicester’s Hospitals and if you want to hear about opportunities to take part, sign up to Leicester’s Research Registry to receive regular email updates.

Be Part of Research is a service that makes it easy to learn about and search for research studies.