New phase of additional funds to support clinical trials methods in UK

The Medical Research Council has launched a £12 million initiative to establish regional hubs of excellence to develop better methods for conducting clinical trials.

The money is the second wave of funding for methodology research from the Medical Research Council (MRC) and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) partnership. The developing joint MRC-NIHR strategy for this area aims to position the UK as a leader in the methods development and strengthen the national platform in the methods that underpin health research.

The methodology hubs will underpin the substantial increase in clinical trials activity being planned by the MRC and NIHR for early and late phase clinical trials, which is part of the overall joint translational research strategy to turn research into health and economic benefits more efficiently. This new initiative will be managed by the MRC on behalf of the MRC-NIHR partnership.

Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, MRC chief executive, said:

“The MRC championed the randomised controlled trial which is the acknowledged gold standard in testing new treatments. More recently it devised the MRC framework for complex interventions to help researchers undertake more complex evaluations testing combinations of treatments and particularly non-pharmacological interventions.

This new initiative will build on these achievements and position the UK at the forefront of clinical trials methodology research. The regional hubs will be ideally placed to ensure that the MRC and NIHR can best deliver the clinical trials necessary for improving patient care in the UK.”

Professor Sally Davies, Director General of Research and Development at the Department of Health said:

"The Comprehensive Spending Review has provided NIHR with the funding to support an unprecedented expansion in clinical trials activity, for the ultimate benefit of patients and the public. However, this research will only be able to provide reliable and relevant evidence if it is conducted using the most powerful and appropriate research methods. The complexity of new interventions, and the speed with which they are developed, presents challenges to those who wish to studytheir effectiveness. The new research methodology hubs being established by MRC on behalf of the MRC-NIHR partnership, will play a key role in developing the methods to meet these challenges."

The funds available will be used to establish regional centres of excellence which undertake high quality research into clinical trials methodology. The centres will have close links with those carrying out clinical trials (for example clinical academics or those in clinical trials units) to ensure the development of methods is influenced by real issues. Conversely, these close links will help to ensure new methods are used in clinical trial studies as quickly as possible. The funding will also enable more researchers to be trained in clinical trials methodology research.

This initiative follows the launch of the MRC-NIHR’s Methodology Research Programme - a grant scheme for methods research across the breadth of basic and applied health research, also led by MRC (www.mrc.ac.uk/opportunities).

The MRC and NIHR joint arrangements have been developed with the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research.