Run your study in the NHS

From feasibility, to site selection, to monitoring performance, we provide the life sciences industry with a flexible package of free support to help plan, place and successfully deliver clinical research in the UK to time and target. Our support is available to all life science industries (including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics and medical technology industries and Contract Research Organisations) regardless of location, study type, study size, or therapy area. 

Plan

We provide a range of support to help you plan your clinical study or trial. All you need to get started is a study outline or draft protocol. We can help you to:

• Get expert advice and guidance to plan your research
  Begin your research journey with us by speaking with us . We will help you to explore what support is available in the UK for your clinical study and connect you to the right people through our Early Contact and Engagement support.
   
• Engage directly with patients to improve trial design and delivery
  Patient centricity is a priority for life sciences companies. Through our Patient Engagement in Clinical Development service we can connect you with patients who can help shape and improve both the design and delivery of your research. This service has been specifically designed to help you to overcome many of the regulatory challenges that companies face when working directly with patients.
  
  
• Find out how feasible your study is in the UK
  Access NHS clinical experts in relevant therapeutic areas to advise on the feasibility and deliverability of your study in the NHS and/or social care environment.
   
• Access internationally recognised Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training
  Our Good Clinical Practice training which is recognised by TransCelerate and free for all NHS site personnel delivering your study.
  
  
• Improving inclusion of under-served groups in clinical research
  Will your recruitment strategy reach under-represented groups? Read our guidance on improving diversity and inclusion.

Place

We work at a national level and a site level which means that we have unparalleled access to a wide range of data and intelligence which can help you to place your study more strategically, and more successfully. We can help you to:

• Identify sites for your study
  Our Site Identification service utilises our national Clinical Research Network to to gather expressions of interest to deliver your study from investigators throughout the NHS, including general practice (primary care).
   
• Access our research and site intelligence services
  Ask our national team to advise where the best recruitment potential lies, or use our local site and study intelligence data to sense check your recruitment targets for pre-selected sites and optimise delivery of your study.
   
• Experience faster costing and contracting
  Quicker, consistent and more cost effective. The UK’s unified approach to commercial research costing and contracting can support your site selection strategy and minimise negotiation time during study set-up. 

Perform

Once your study is approved we’ll work with you at a local and national level to get your sites up and running and to monitor its performance. We can help you:

• Streamline your study set-up
  We know how important it is to get from approval to recruitment. Our national network will work with you to identify obstacles and share solutions to get all of your sites open quickly and efficiently.
   
• Keep your research on track
  We will work with you to ensure your research project is making progress by monitoring study-wide performance and targeting support through our regional teams as required.

Further help to access our services

A Study Support Service Route Map has been developed with the life sciences industry, for the life sciences industry. It is a helpful guide to accessing our support.

You may also be interested to know how our services complement the paid-for support services that are provided by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

If you have not developed your protocol or acquired funding yet contact our Signposting Service to learn how we can support you.

“We were aware that the UK had a health research system embedded in its national health service that could potentially help us enroll quickly, and this positively influenced our decision to conduct a trial in the UK. We were [also] keenly aware of the UK’s Urgent Public Health response and process. Our first port of call when bringing the trial to the UK, after the protocol was approved by MHRA, was to work with NIHR to ensure rapid recruitment and enrollment that would ideally provide a near-term view of NVX-CoV2373’s efficacy.”
Wendy Talbott, Senior Director of Clinical Operations at Novavax, March 2021

Working across the UK

Our network is for the NHS in England, but you can be assured that we work collaboratively with our colleagues in Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland to enable a smooth and quick research delivery experience across the UK.

Contact us

Get started by  contacting the Study Support Service Help desk

• supportmystudy@nihr.ac.uk

If your study is already part of the NIHR Clinical Research Network Portfolio and you need support or help with investigators, site set-up, or recruitment issues, contact your local Industry Operations Manager for support.

“Without NIHR support, I don’t believe that we would have been so far in our journey and be at this stage; ready for the study to go live in the next couple of months. And I also don’t think that, as a company, we would really understand how we would develop our evidence strategy at this stage in our life cycle.”
Jonathan Abraham, CEO and Co-founder, Healum