About the Vision
In March 2021, the UK government and devolved administrations set out a bold vision - 'Saving and improving lives: the future of UK clinical research delivery'. This was followed in June 2021 by the publication of the Phase 1 2021 to 2022 implementation plan and June 2022 of Phase 2 2022 to 2025 implementation plan.
Through the Oversight Group, Programme Board, and Advisory Board, cross-sector collaboration supports the planning, strategising and implementation of the vision. Learn more about The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery’s governance.
Government 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 response builds upon the strong foundation that is our clinical research ecosystem and progress made since publication of our vision in 2021. 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
We recognise the health needs of the UK and our research system are broad and diverse. Together, we are committed to maintaining a rich and balanced portfolio – early and late phase, commercial and non-commercial with a range of methodologies and sizes.
The 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 ten-year Vision.
The publication provides a clear signal to the health research system that this government remains committed to making the UK a world leader in conducting clinical research of all types.
Read The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery’s blog on the Full government response to the Lord O'Shaughnessy review into commercial clinical trials here.
Timeline
March 2021: Vision announced
Publication of Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery
June 2021: Phase 1 announced
Phase one implementation plan, The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery: 2021 to 2022 implementation plan, is published
April 2022: Research Reset launched
Programme launched to recover the UK clinical research system following the impact of the pandemic
June 2022: Phase 2 announced
Phase two implementation plan, The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery: 2022 to 2025 implementation plan, is published
October 2023: National Contract Value Review (NCVR) implemented
Stage one of a new standardised, national approach to costing for commercial contract research is implemented
May 2023: Commercial clinical trials review and Government Response published
Lord James O’Shaughnessy released his final report of the independent review of UK commercial clinical trials. The Government also published their initial response to the review in parallel
July 2023: Research Reset completed
The programme achieved its goal of 80% of all open studies on the NIHR Clinical Research Network’s portfolio to be delivering to time and target
September 2023: MHRA backlog cleared
Between July and Sept 2023, MHRA assessed over 2,000 clinical trial applications clearing the backlog of 966 clinical trial applications
October 2023: NCVR stage 2 implemented
Changes to some aspects of NCVR are implemented as it enters stage 2. Analysis of the first 12 month show a 36% reduction in set-up time
November 2023: Government’s full response to review published
The government publishes the full response to the O’Shaughnessy review and corresponding recommendations, integrating this into the ongoing work to deliver the vision
Research Reset
The Research Reset is a completed programme of work that was implemented to support the UK’s clinical research ecosystem building back a strong foundation post-pandemic – a foundation from which the vision could continue to propel from.
Since the initiation of the Research reset programme, significant improvements have been made, and the programme achieved its aim of 80% of open studies on the National Institute of Health and Care Research Clinical Research Network’s (NIHR CRN) portfolio delivering on time and to target by June 2023. With the programme complete, the aim is to now maintain this success and to ensure more studies open within planned timelines, reducing the number of studies which miss their planned opening date by more than 90 days to zero, and continuing overall levels of recruitment.
The Research Reset approach and learnings have been implemented by the NIHR CRN as standard processes for managing the national clinical research portfolio going forward – creating solid foundations for sustainable growth of UK clinical research. Monthly data reports continue to summarise progress of the NIHR CRN portfolio, as a way of monitoring the progress of clinical research across the UK. View the latest data on the updates page.