Advice, guidance and tools to help plan your research study

We provide a range of support to help you plan your study or trial in health or care settings. We can help you achieve the greatest impact through the delivery of your study if you engage with us as early as possible - even if you haven’t secured funding for your research yet. All you need to get started is a study outline or draft protocol.

Expert advice and guidance to plan your research

Access support from your local clinical research network (LCRN) team and benefit from a bespoke service designed to meet the needs of your study. A dedicated member of our study support service team will work with you to identify how we can help you plan and prepare.

For non-commercial studies, this includes support in the following areas:

• Advice on eligibility for the Clinical Research Network (CRN) Portfolio and the process of applying for CRN support for your study
• Signposting to support for protocol design e.g. Research Design Service and our patient and public involvement and engagement team
• Advice and support on cost attribution, following the Department of Health and Social Care's Attributing the Costs of health and social care Research and Development (AcoRD) guidance
• Support in providing required information, including access to AcoRD specialists and the UK-wide schedule of events cost attribution template (SoECAT) to help plan and define the resource of your study activities
• Help identifying excess treatment costs to ensure payment, and provide support in accessing any potential research part B costs and service support costs via your organisation’s annual allocation
• Signposting to relevant training e.g. cost attribution, SoECATs, Integrated Research Application System (IRAS)/Health Research Authority (HRA) and Good Clinical Practice
• Providing local intelligence about sites and services in your region to optimise delivery, including the exploration of recruitment pathways
• Facilitation of support for multi-site studies across our local clinical research networks and the devolved administrations
• Facilitating access to our specialty research leads - with expertise in leading and delivering research, alongside providing health and care services

What is AcoRD (Attributing the costs of health and social care Research and Development)?

AcoRD sets out how the Department of Health meets some of the costs of charity-funded research in the NHS. We’ve developed a range of resources to help you understand the principles of AcoRD, including the attribution e-learning tool, FAQs, and instructions to find your local AcoRD specialist.

Contact us

This service complements the support already provided by individual research and development offices. Contact your local clinical research network to access the service.

If you are unsure where to start or require any further assistance, please email the Study Support Service helpdesk: supportmystudy@nihr.ac.uk.

What next in terms of support?

As well as helping you to plan, our Study Support Service can help you to place and perform your research.

• Place your study: Learn how we can help you to identify sites for your study and optimise delivery by anticipating challenges before they happen
• Perform your study: Discover how we help to ensure your study is set up as quickly and efficiently as possible, and help you to proactively monitor its progress

Feedback

Please share your thoughts on this page so we can continually optimise our information on the Study Support Service.