December 2025 Newsletter
Date: 27 December 2025
Welcome to the RDF December 2025 Newsletter
December is a time to celebrate and reflect. It marks the close of another year, providing us all with a chance to pause and recharge, appreciate what we’ve achieved together, and look ahead with optimism and renewed vigour. Amid the holiday season, we honour the milestones reached, the challenges overcome, and the progress that shapes our future.
Back in Manchester at RDF25, Angela Topping (RDF Chair) described the current times as VUCA: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. It has been one of the most challenging years in memory for our sector, with a relentless pace of change and ever greater scrutiny of our ways of working. 2026 will no doubt bring more of the same, and with it, even more impetus to come together as a community of practice: learning lessons together, sharing good practice and supporting one another to make an even greater impact.
Health and care research is a team sport, reliant on the hard work and commitment of multidisciplinary teams working in close collaboration and partnership within research locations and across wider systems. As a community, we have much to be proud of as we slowly but surely turn the dial and improve outcomes for patients across the United Kingdom and beyond. Thanks to our work, there are many people that
will celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the winter solstice, the new year, or simply gather with friends and family, that perhaps would not have had the opportunity without the hope and options that research delivers.
Thank you for your hard work, your dedication, and your impact.
Mark Brandon-Grove
R&D Forum Trustee
RDF26 Early Bird Ends 31st January
Be part of the UK’s leading event for health and care research leadership, strategy and management. RDF26 brings together over 950 professionals from across the sector to share knowledge, shape the future, and strengthen our research community.
Secure your place early and take advantage of reduced Early Bird rates – available until 31 January 2026.
Don’t miss this opportunity to connect, learn, and lead at the heart of the UK’s research and development community.
Join us in Birmingham as a delegate, or spotlight your organisation with refreshed exhibition and sponsorship packages.
R&D Forum Training Courses – Tailor Your Learning
While dates aren’t released just yet, now is the perfect time to explore our exclusive and bespoke training options, ideal for organisations wanting tailored development for their teams. Whether you’re looking to host a course locally, arrange an online group session, or commission a fully customised programme, we can shape our expert-led training to meet your exact needs.
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NIHR Updates
HRA Update: Guidance is available for NHS organisations on how to acknowledge a new research project being brought under the model Master Confidential Disclosure Agreement (mMCDA)
Guidance is available for NHS and HSC organisations to support them in quickly acknowledging when a sponsor wants to add a new study to the model Master Confidential Disclosure Agreement (mMCDA).
After the mMCDA is signed between a commercial sponsor and NHS or HSC organisation, individual studies are added to the agreement through the notification system described in schedule 1 of the mMCDA.
Confidentiality obligations in the mMCDA only apply after:
- the sponsor has notified the NHS or HSC organisation of the new study by completing and emailing schedule 1 AND
- the NHS or HSC organisation has acknowledged receipt of schedule 1
REMINDER: Help the HRA test a new draft Commercial Site Selected Letter of Intent
Commercial sponsors and contract research organisations (CROs) are invited to volunteer to test a new draft Commercial Site Selected Letter of Intent.
The Commercial Site Selected Letter of Intent formalises the site-selection stage of commercial contract research set-up in the UK, which is the critical decision point for commercial sponsors and CROs.
The letter is intended to help to standardise the information provided by sponsors and CROs to their prospective sites, to support better-informed joint decisions on the capability and likely capacity of those prospective sites to deliver the study.
HRA Update: Building better research services
The HRA achieved an important milestone in introducing their new digital service, Plan and Manage Health and Care Research. For the first time, invited users will access the live service and start to use it to make changes to selected study types. The HRA are working with 10 invited sponsor organisations who are our early adopters for this first phase. The HRA have asked these sponsors to partner with them based on the types and volumes of studies they are responsible for. Their involvement and feedback on the service will be essential to help the HRA understand what’s working and what needs to improve.
Advanced Therapy Clinical Trials Capability Framework Consultation
Skills for Health and the Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre (ATTC) network are developing the Advanced Therapy Clinical Trials Capability Framework, which will define the knowledge and skills required for the workforce delivering advanced therapy clinical trials across the UK.
The consultation on the Framework is now open, and we are inviting professionals across advanced therapies clinical research and trial delivery to take part.
Your input is critical. By taking part, you can:
- Influence the development of a national workforce framework
- Help shape the skills needed for future advanced therapy trial delivery
- Contribute to improving patient access to innovative treatments
Network director takes up post to accelerate commercial research in the UK
Jennifer Crooks has joined the CRDC UK Network as Network Operations Director.
The Commercial Research Delivery Centre (CRDC) UK Network, established in September 2025, brings together 21 CRDCs and 14 Primary Care CRDCs to strengthen the UK’s position as a global leader in commercial clinical research. Supported by the NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) in partnership with the pharmaceutical industry, the Network provides industry with fast, reliable, and consistent trial delivery at scale.
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 here.
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