Research Performance

NIHR Performance Metrics

The Government wants to see a dramatic and sustained improvement in the performance of providers of NHS services in initiating and delivering clinical research. As part of this incentive, the Department of Health requires, via the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), contracts with providers of NHS services, and the publication on a quarterly basis of information regarding:

         i) the 70-day benchmark for clinical trial initiation; and 
         ii) the recruitment to time and target for commercial contract clinical trials.

The performance data can now be accessed here  

Definitions

Clinical Trial: Medical research procedures conducted to allow safety and adverse effects of interventions, their efficacy, or their effectiveness to be established often by comparison with placebo interventions. Interventions may be drugs, diagnostics, prophylactics, surgery, devices, non- invasive therapies, screening or other healthcare procedures or technologies.

Commercial Clinical Trial: A clinical trial that is solely funded and sponsored by industry in which:

  • The trial sponsor is the industrial company;

  • The trial is carried out with the aim of generating data for purposes such    as  Marketing Authorisations, safety monitoring and supportive evidence for claims;

  • The sponsor owns all the trial data and all Intellectual Property and Know How arising directly from the trial.

Research Strategy.pdf[pdf] 617KB