November 2024 Newsletter
Date: 30 November 2024
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Welcome to the Forum November 2024 Newsletter
It’s no surprise to any of us that research and innovation will be critical in helping to deliver emerging government ambitions for health and care, but good to see increasing recognition of this. New NHS England guidance for Integrated Care Board leaders issued this month specifically references the need to keep up to date with system research activity across different settings and specialties (including NIHR portfolio delivery); equity of access to research for their population; and efforts to maximise the benefits of research.
At the same time, the R&D Forum is busy keeping pace with proposals for changes in how NHS R&D operates, ensuring that our community expertise is properly represented in discussions with the help of our excellent working groups.
We have received a fantastic range of submissions for oral and poster presentations for the RDF25 conference. Thanks to everyone who took the time to contribute these examples of the incredible volume, variety and quality of work going on across the community. This should be the best meeting yet, and we do hope that as many of you as possible will be able to attend – there will be so much to learn, to share, and to discuss. Manchester is also a real centre of R&D excellence, and a great place to visit…trust me, I grew up there!
Pippa Brice
R&D Forum Trustee
Programme Announcement Pending
We would like to thank everyone who has submitted an abstract for presentation at RDF25. Having received a record-breaking number of abstract submissions, RDF25 promises to be the cornerstone event for networking, professional development, and knowledge sharing across the sector in 2025.
For those who submitted an abstract
We will be contacting those who have submitted oral presentation abstracts and/or poster presentation abstracts in the next 2 weeks. All submissions will receive an acceptance or rejection – you will hear from us before the programme is released.
Bookings for RDF25 are open
Join us at RDF25 for an unmissable gathering for professionals dedicated to health and care research management.
Working Group of the Month – Non-Commercial Sponsors Working Group
The Non-Commercial Sponsors Working group focuses on sponsorship and brings together experienced NHS, HEI and Devolved Administrations representatives from non-commercial Sponsor teams. The purpose is to drive non-commercial Sponsorship practice forward.
The purpose of the group is to provide peer support, share best practice and solutions and to advocate where helpful adjustments could be implemented by stakeholders (e.g. the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Health Research Authority (HRA) and National Institute for Health and Care Research and Research Delivery Network (RDN).
The Group is Co-Chaired by Dipak Patel, Associate Director of Research & Innovation at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Sean Scott, Head of Newcastle Joint Research Office at the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
If you are interested in joining this Working Group please email: info@rdforum.org.uk
Find out more about this group
Upcoming Courses
The R&D Forum courses have been designed to support individual development in health research management, support, and leadership. As we draw closer to the end of 2024, only one opportunity this year remains to take part in a training course.
Bookings are open for….
- The final course of 2024 on Essentials of Research Sponsorship
- 2-day Course on Essentials of NHS Research
The full calendar of training courses and events for 2025 will be released soon.
NIHR Updates
- New tool available to scope research locations across the UK
- NEW FUNCTIONALITY! Sponsor Engagement Tool for studies on the NIHR RDN Portfolio
- National Contract Value Review is now in place for all research phases
New report: Building capacity for research in health and social care
The Academy of Medical Sciences has published a new report on how to build capacity for research in health and social care, following a cross-sector roundtable in June 2024. The roundtable was hosted in partnership with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, as part of the Academy’s FORUM programme.
ICB Update: Insightful board guidance
NHS England has published their Insightful board guidance. This guidance provides in one place what boards of integrated care boards and providers should be looking at, and how to use it to drive better outcomes, better productivity, and better decisions.
The Indicative ICB board agenda suggests a research and innovation update should be presented every 6 months.
Suggested research focused questions for ICB Boards include:
- Is the system maximising potential benefits of research and innovation including new digital technologies?
- Does the board have a view of the research activity across its settings and specialties and the equity of access to research for its populations?
Suggested relevant indicators and measure for research:
- Progress relating to duty to facilitate, promote and use research including an understanding of activity for both commercial and non-commercial research across settings and the NHS Research Secure Data Environment Network
- Delivery of NIHR portfolio research studies to time and target
- Partnerships with academia and other research organisations, including NIHR infrastructure, and the ICS Research Engagement Network.
Supporting the R&D community to achieve a Net Zero NHS
We were delighted to attend the MRC-NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership Greener Trials Working Group, “Greener Trials: Knowledge Exchange in the Regulatory Ecosystem.” earlier this year. We shared a blog update in our September newsletter. This workshop was a cross-sectoral knowledge exchange and discussion event to discuss potential regulatory solutions to clinical trial carbon emission mitigation. The report from this workshop is now available online.
The Sudlow Review
Professor Cathie Sudlow’s independent review of the UK health data landscape, titled ‘Uniting the UK’s Health Data: A Huge Opportunity for Society’, was published on Friday 8 November 2024.
The review’s findings set out a bold vision for overcoming the barriers and inefficiencies that currently delay the safe and secure use of health data to improve lives. It also sets out how that can be achieved, with five key recommendations to transform the national health data ecosystem.
Public Consultation on the International Council for Harmonisation ICH E6 (R3) Guideline for Good Clinical Practice Annex-2 – November update
This guidance is for anyone looking to safely and effectively use data science and AI tools, to both minimise the risk of harm and maximise their potential to transform a range of sectors.
Relationship between research activity and the performance of English general practices – New paper published
There is developing evidence that undertaking research activity itself may improve the performance of healthcare organisations. However, the bulk of the evidence relates to hospital research, and it is less clear if these relationships represent a causal impact of research activity. This study published in the British Journal of General Practice showed that research activity in general practice is associated with a range of measures of practice performance. Research activity is a useful marker of high-performing general practices, but there is less evidence that research is causing improvements, possibly reflecting the limited levels of research activity in most practices.
HRA Update: World Health Organization: Guidance for best practices on clinical trials
On Wednesday 25 September the World Health Organization published new guidance to improve the design, conduct and oversight of clinical trials across the world.
The guidance aims to support what it calls strong ‘research and development ecosystems’ that create well designed and well implemented clinical trials.
HRA update: New draft Commercial Chief Investigator Agreement – tell the HRA what you think
The Health Research Authority (HRA) and devolved administrations are looking for feedback on a new draft of a model Commercial Chief Investigator Agreement (mCCIA).
Share your feedback by the 30th November – follow the link below.
HRA Update: HRA and MHRA draft inclusion and diversity guidance
The HRA have launched an informal consultation on draft guidance they are producing with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The aim of the guidance is to help increase the diversity of people taking part in clinical trials and clinical investigations and the HRA want to know what you think. The informal consultation closes on Monday 9 December 2024.
Costing and contracting is now standard practice for commercial research
Following the rollout last month of the National Contract Value Review (NCVR) to all trial phases, NIHR’s Head of Study Support Services reflects on the impact of standardised costing and contracting on commercial study set-up in the UK.
RDF Resource Exchange
Resources from The Research and Development Forum are there to support health and care research in the UK.
Browse the Resources available to the RDF below.
Contacting The Research and Development Forum
As a reminder, should you need to contact the Forum the best way is via email which is info@rdforum.org.uk