The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery: Saving and improving lives
Through a cross-sector, collaborative approach, the UK research system is working together on a coordinated and coherent programme of work that has been developed to ensure the recovery, resilience and growth of the UK’s clinical research sector.
Using The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery as the collective vision, this continuous improvement programme aims to deliver faster, more efficient and more innovative clinical research – making the UK one of the best places in the world to design and deliver research.
The programme has already seen huge progress with:
the number of people recruited and the total number of studies back to, or greater than, pre-pandemic levels
the majority of UK studies are now delivering on time and target
improvements to the regulatory process and streamlined approvals
reduction in study set up times
Find the most up to date data on the UK clinical research system by visiting our UK Clinical Research Update page.
The 5 themes
The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery vision is anchored in five overarching themes, which underpin the implementation plans.
A sustainable and supported research workforce to ensure that healthcare staff of all backgrounds and roles are given the right support to deliver clinical research as an essential part of care
Clinical research embedded in the NHS so that research is increasingly seen as an essential part of healthcare to generate evidence about effective diagnosis, treatment and prevention
People-centred research to make it easier for patients, service users and members of the public across the UK to access research and be involved in the design of research, and to have the opportunity to participate
Streamlined, efficient and innovative research so that the UK is seen as one of the best places in the world to conduct cutting-edge clinical research, driving innovation in healthcare
Research enabled by data and digital tools to ensure the best use of resources, leveraging the strength of UK health data assets to allow for more high-quality research to be delivered
The Vision and our response to Lord O’Shaughnessy’s independent review
On the 25th May 2023, the government announced plans to speed up clinical trials and make it easier for revolutionary healthcare treatments to get to NHS patients, backed by £121 million. This was followed in November 2023 with the full government response reinforcing these plans with a full system-wide response which had cross-sector input and outlined that over the next two years, we will:
Fully implement the five headline commitments announced in May 2023;
Make progress in tackling all the problem statements identified by Lord O’Shaughnessy;
Continue work to improve the operating environment for all types of clinical research using National Performance Indicators and being transparent about the latest status of these metrics;
Increase adoption of more innovative, decentralised models of clinical trial delivery through Clinical Trial Delivery Accelerators in vaccines and dementia.
The announcement, published in response to Lord O’Shaughnessy’s independent review, provides a prioritised delivery plan for both the recommendations in the review and the existing programme of work announced in our previous implementation plans. The full government response updates and supersedes our previous plans and provides renewed focus to ensure we make the progress necessary to ensure we are a global leader in the delivery of life sciences research while also ensuring continued progress towards our 10-year vision.
We have integrated Lord O’Shaughnessy’s recommendations into our implementation of our vision for the Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery to ensure a consistent and cohesive approach to improving the whole UK clinical research system and making the UK one of the best places in the world to conduct clinical research. Read more about the vision.