NIHR update on 150-day set-up: 6 March 2026
Date: 17 March 2026
A summary of the most recent NIHR regular update for delivery organisations and sponsors
Guidance around data
As we approach the end of the year, it is important to remind delivery organisations about the importance of entering site data in the LPMS in real time to ensure the data is as complete, accurate and transparent as possible. Support and guidance is available for delivery organisations to complete their data accurately in a timely manner, ensure that set-up data is presented in a satisfactory format to interpret – and help NHS trusts monitor and understand their data available via the NHS Trust Set-up Dashboard (see below).
The NHS Trust Study Set-up Dashboard, provided by NIHR RDN to NHS Trusts via the NIHR RDN Reporting Platform, is designed to help delivery organisations monitor study set-up data for their whole portfolio, both operationally and for any specific data used for UKCRD reporting or RDN Funding Model calculations. The dashboard presents data from CPMS that has been sent from LPMS systems on a daily basis and is updated every morning to reflect any new data provided.
Patient and Public involvement & Engagement and faster set-up times
Public involvement is crucial for ensuring the relevance, quality, reach and impact of research. It also significantly enhances participant recruitment and retention and may help streamline the ethical and regulatory approval processes. Engaging patients and the public early and meaningfully allows researchers to avoid delays that occur when substantive changes are needed. Find out about NIHR’s existing support for PPIE in research below:
- Patient Engagement in Clinical Design (PECD) service – engage patients and public to improve your clinical trials
- Is the patient voice in the DNA of your trial? LinkedIn
- Five pointers to ensure your patient engagement activities contribute to a successful UK ethics submission LinkedIn
Case studies: Celebrating success
Improving information governance (IG) review processes
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust has carried out a project to speed up the information governance (IG) review process for health research, resulting in faster study set-up times.
Driven by the UK government’s goal of reducing clinical trial set-up to under 150 days, the project addressed a key delay: the common practice of research sites duplicating the national IG review already completed by the Health Research Authority (HRA).
Colleagues from the trust’s research and development team were supported by the NIHR RDN to develop the new process. Now, studies not sponsored by the trust and undergoing HRA’s study-wide review will no longer be routinely submitted for a duplicate local IG check. This clarity reduces risk from conflicting assessments and has already led to faster set-up for complex commercial studies.
The HRA is now incorporating these – and other – system learnings into its new ‘What Good IG Looks Like’ guide, helping other trusts nationwide adopt a more proportionate and efficient approach. Read the full story here.
You can find out more about the cross-sector work to improve study set-up, including the 150 day target, on the UK Clinical Research Delivery programme website.