Expression of Interest (EOI) FAQ

No. An EoI can be submitted and withdrawn at a later date if an organisation realises they are unable to take on a study. For this reason, a full feasibility assessment is not necessarily required before the submission of an EoI; although the CRN East Midlands appreciates different organisations follow their own internal processes. 

EoIs for non-commercial studies are passed directly to the research team via email. EoIs (ie. completed Site Identification Form) for commercial studies are passed to the CRN Coordinating Centre Feasibility Team via CPMS. All commercial EoIs submitted nationally are then passed on to the CRO/Sponsor.

The number of submissions via the website is also used to inform the CRN East Midlands of research activity in different specialties and at sites across the region.

The CRN East Midlands is ready and very willing to support you with any queries you have whilst considering an opportunity. Please make any requests for support via supportmystudyeastmidlands@nihr.ac.uk and/or via your CRN Senior Team Link (if applicable). 

The website can be accessed by anyone who the link is shared with, therefore members of the public could view the opportunities on the EoI website. However the likelihood is very minimal as the website link is not shared widely and it is not an easy web address to guess. 

The website will be updated whenever the CRN East Midlands becomes aware of research teams looking for new sites for their study. Therefore, the website could be updated up to several times a day. We recommend you access the website on a regular basis so as not to miss opportunities. 

The website can be accessed by anyone who the link is shared with. It is up to individual organisations as to whether they encourage PIs and other clinicians/healthcare professionals to access the website themselves. 

Yes, the website and documents are open to those who do not use Google Workspace. 

Each opportunity has the setting(s) that the study can be run in entered under a dedicated field named ‘study setting’. There is also a drop down filter above the studies listed which can be used to identify opportunities relevant to a specific setting. The CRN East Midlands endeavours to list as many relevant settings as possible against each opportunity. 

This information may be included in the supporting documents accessed via the ‘link to study documents field’. 

The CRN East Midlands endeavours to provide as much information as possible when sharing opportunities on the EoI website. However, sometimes all the required information is not immediately available to us. In such scenarios, to give organisations as long as possible to consider a study,  we will share the opportunity with the information we have and in parallel seek further details from the research team. When this is received we will update the opportunity on the website. You can see when an update was last made under the ‘date last updated’ field.

We also provide the study team contact details under each opportunity and so if you have a specific query relation to your potential involvement in a study, you could contact the research team directly.

Each study summary on the right-hand side of the web page will include a link to study documents, please click on ‘click here’ to access these. For commercial studies, this will include the template Site Identification Form. If access to the supporting documents is denied for any reason, please request access via the button and/or email supportmystudyeastmidlands@nihr.ac.uk.

If you would like to express interest for a particular opportunity, click on the link ‘Submit an Expression of Interest’. This can be found at the top of the panel that provides an overview of the study on the right-hand side of the web page. This link will take you to a typeform to be completed and submitted back to the CRN East Midlands. For commercial opportunities, you are required to complete the template Site Identification Form available from the supporting documents link on the website. 

By pressing submit after the last question has been completed. 

No. Please do not submit an EoI via the website if you have already expressed interest directly with the research team. We do however encourage submission of EoIs via the CRN East Midlands website so that we can support organisations and research teams as necessary through the set-up process. 

This is an internal decision for each organisation, depending on how confident you are that you will be able to secure a PI for the study. However, remember submission of an EoI is not a commitment to take part in a study. An EoI can be submitted and then withdrawn at a later date. 

If you have completed either a Site Identification Form for a commercial study or an expression of interest form for a non-commercial study (if one has been supplied), you are not required to fill all of the typeform questions. The mandatory fields are ‘Site Name’, ‘Site Contact Name’, ‘Site Contact Email’ and ‘Do you want to submit an EoI?’. 

Yes. Organisations are encouraged to submit a ‘decline’ for opportunities they are unable to participate in. The CRN East Midlands will use this information to understand the capabilities/interest areas of each organisation as well as to inform where support may be needed across the region. We may also share this information with research teams so they are made aware of any issues with their study design.

There is a drop down list that can be used to select a reason for declining and also a box for other reasons not listed,  or to provide a further explanation. If there are reasons for declining that do not appear in the drop down list, but are frequently used, please make the CRN East Midlands aware so these can be added to the drop down list. 

The study title and CPMS number (if available) will be available to select from a drop down list. 

As we are fortunate to have so many PIs participating in research across the East Midlands, it is not possible to list all of these in a drop down.

In most cases an opportunity will have a deadline for submission of EoIs. Studies may also be removed from the website before the deadline if the required number of EoIs has been reached.

Where a research team does not have a set deadline, an opportunity will remain on the website for a maximum of 3 months, but may be removed sooner on the direction of the research team.

Non-commercial opportunities will be moved to the ‘Non-Commercial (Closed)’ tab of the website as soon as the deadline is reached. As the time window for submitting EoIs for commercial opportunities tends to be relatively short, these opportunities will remain on the ‘Commercial Studies (Open)’ tab of the website for 2 weeks after the deadline is passed to allow for late submission of EoIs if necessary. After this time, they will be removed completely from the website.

Organisations can submit an expression of interest after the deadline is passed, as the research team may accept late interest if they have not reached their target number of sites. However, the CRN East Midlands recommends submission of EoIs as soon as possible and before the deadline wherever possible.

The CRN East Midlands does not receive feedback from research teams in relation to site selection on a routine basis. However, we can support a request to obtain this information in a particular scenario if necessary. Please contact supportmystudyeastmidlands@nihr.ac.uk in the first instance. Alternatively, if you have already had dialogue with the research team directly, you could approach them for feedback.

Reasons why an opportunity has been declined will be reviewed to to understand the capabilities/interest areas of each organisation as well as to inform where support may be needed across the region. We may also share this information with research teams so they are made aware of any issues with their study design. 

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