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November 2023 Newsletter
Date: 30 November 2023
Welcome to the Forum November 2023 Newsletter
We hope you all enjoyed any Halloween and Bonfire Night treats you had planned despite the prevailing weather conditions we experienced and remained safe. We now march on to the festive season which will be upon us in no time soon.
It has been a welcome month to network and collaborate with colleagues from our wider research community. We had the opportunity to meet with colleagues at the IAOCR Clinical Research Industry Think Tank in Liverpool and at the UKTMN 25th Anniversary Event in Nottingham where lots of connections were made, follow-ups to be had and collective changes to be made.
I look forward to representing the Forum in my new role on the Executive and working with you to navigate and influence how we deliver research across the four nations.
And finally a quick reminder, please note that the submission deadline for oral abstracts are closing at the end of this month for RDF24. Get those submissions in and best of luck.
Dipak Patel, NHS RDF Trustee
RDF24 Update
Book your Place for Celtic Manor
Bookings are open for RDF24, and our annual conference will bring together the UK wide professional community in research management, support & leadership in health and care.
Making your booking early will allow you to take advantage of the early bird rate and save up to £100 per person.
Visit our website to explore booking options.
Oral Presentation Deadline Approaches
The RDF24 Programme Content Committee are inviting abstracts for oral presentation at RDF24.
Presentations should relate to the process, the structure, improving efficiency, improving quality, promoting best practice or adding value in R&D studies, teams, departments or organisations.
Closing dates for oral abstracts: 30th November 2023. Visit our website below for more information.
We need your help to shape training that matters to you
The NHS R&D Forum has offered an Archiving course for a number of years. Attendance has dropped dramatically, so we are going to withdraw the course as it stands. We are considering a re-design of the course which would cover the document management across the lifetime of a study, which would include archiving.
Please can you let us know whether you feel this training is something that is needed in the community. We want to ensure that what we provide by way of training and development meets the community’s needs.
Data and AI Working Group Update
Berit Reglar, Director of Research & Research Data Governance, UHB and Chair of the Data and AI Working Group has decided to step down. The RDF trustees would like to extend a big thank you to Berit for her leadership, ideas and support for this important working group. Adam Loveday from Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is confirmed as the new chair of this group. If you interested in joining this group please email info@rdforum.org.uk
ICB Research Leads Working Group Update
Clara Yates Associate Director of Research, NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB) has been asked to act as Interim Chair for the ICB Research Leads Working Group by the Forum Trustees. The NHS ICB Research Leads Working Group is set up to bring together those individuals whose remit it is to lead, support and enable ICBs to meet their statutory duties in relation to research and the use of evidence from research. The group is meeting for the first time in December 2023.
NIHR Updates
- Department for Health and Social Care announces new NIHR Research Delivery Network
- NIHR data shows that the National Contract Value Review has reduced setup times by a third
- Building on the success of Research Reset
- Over 370,000 people register to Be Part of Research
Government response to the review into commercial clinical trials – The full government response to the Lord O’Shaughnessy independent review of UK commercial clinical trials.
The government published its initial response to the Lord O’Shaughnessy review into UK commercial clinical trials in May 2023. The initial response welcomed all recommendations from the review in principle and made 5 headline commitments backed by up to £121 million funding.
A new report published on November 22nd 2023 sets out the government’s response in full and integrates Lord O’Shaughnessy’s recommendations into the government’s programme of work to implement their bold and ambitious 10-year vision, Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery.
Read more here
People-Centred Clinical Research
Clinical research is for and about people, so it has to be people-centred. Clinical research aims to find out more about an illness, condition, treatment, therapy, or care by directly involving people in a project. This sort of research may ask people to take part by testing a new treatment, using a device or by being cared for in a certain way. It may also ask them to provide information about the care they usually have.
Lots of people are already included in clinical research, but we know there are lots of people who have not had the opportunity to take part.
Annual Report for Research Ethics Committees (RECs) in England 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023
This report provides an overview of the activity of the Research Ethics Committees (RECs) in England, to enable the HRA Board to undertake its function to monitor the performance of the RECs against the requirements of the UK wide Governance Arrangements for Research Ethics Committees (GAfREC).
UK industry clinical trial performance shows signs of improvement, says ABPI report
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has published its annual report on industry clinical trial performance, ‘Getting back on track: restoring the UK’s global position in industry clinical trials.’ In the report, the ABPI welcomed ongoing efforts to address the decline in UK industry clinical trials and called for continued government focus to ensure sustainable long-term recovery in UK clinical trial performance.
New £28m Centre to forge the next generation of AI digital healthcare innovators
A new £28 million UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training at Imperial College London will train over 120 researchers to develop patient-ready technology.
The UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital Healthcare will train a new generation of PhD-level researchers, including clinical PhD fellows and allied healthcare professionals, to develop AI systems that address healthcare challenges with a focus on patient needs and societal values.
Health Data Research UK Conference 2024: The Grand Challenges in Health Data
Health Data Research UK’s annual conference will be a free two-day, hybrid event to celebrate progress and bring people together to accelerate the trustworthy use of health data for public benefit.
NIHR GOSH BRC Clinical Training PhD Fellowship Programme
The NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR GOSH BRC) has recently launched its Clinical Training PhD Fellowship Programme, which is a three-year programme offering full-time salary funding for fellows to undertake a PhD. The fellowship will allow protected time to concentrate on research, training and development.
Applications are welcome from clinicians and wider health care professionals, including nurses, allied health professional (AHP) staff, pharmacists, psychologists and health care scientists, who can demonstrate excellent potential to be paediatric translational researchers of the future.
The deadline for applications is Tuesday 9th January 2024.
Public Health Research
There is a new Public Health Research NIHR webpage available, which went live on October 30th 2023.
Quality Standards and Design and Review Principles
The HRA have launched new Quality Standards and Design and Review Principles to improve information for people invited to take part in research. They will be implemented UK wide and will become mandatory from 1 December 2023.
To help organisations prepare, the HRA have created a list of frequently asked questions.
Contacting the R&D Forum
As a reminder, should you need to contact the Forum the best way is via email which is info@rdforum.org.uk
The latest job vacancies displayed on our website.