Coming up in this issue...
Announcements
As mentioned in our email on 17 March, after almost three years the SIREN study has grown into an impressive and active community of healthcare workers, NHS organisations, academic researchers, and national public health bodies.
As ever, a huge thank you for being part of this ongoing community which was set-up during the most challenging and uncertain of times.
We still, unfortunately, do not have funding confirmed for the next financial year. This impacts our ability to make concrete decisions regarding SIREN over the next year.
Pause in data collection from 1 April 2023
We can confirm that we expect a pause in SIREN PCR testing and serology samples from 1 April 2023, while we agree what options are feasible for the next financial year. We are actively working to establish potential testing pathways and hope to keep this pause as short as possible.
At the end of March we hope to offer sites the option to become ‘dormant’ partners during the pause period:
- This is subject to REC approval, and we are working on a protocol amendment for this.
- Being a dormant SIREN site during this time will not require any additional work from sites, but the benefit is that we can approach you in future with the option to re-activate SIREN study activity.
- You will receive news about continuing and new areas of research and options for involvement in new sub-studies (not limited to SARS-CoV-2), which may align with the interests or priorities of your organisation.
We will offer the close out process for sites who do not wish to become dormant partners during the pause period.
In addition to the above, we are scoping options to extend the SIREN study period for a further five years (until 2028) during which time data linkage will be used to conduct passive follow-up of existing participants.
Participant engagement activity will continue and participants may be invited to resume active testing, complete questionnaires or join sub-studies, all of which will be optional.
Communication with participants
- We provided a high level update for all participants during the 17 March webinar, and this will be repeated in the participant newsletter going out today.
- We will be sending direct emails to participants still undergoing active testing and those on the postal pathway, to ensure they receive an update regarding the current situation.
We understand this is a challenging time for the study and thank you again for your patience. We will work to keep you informed of any new updates.
Many thanks to all those who attended the webinar on 17 March. The webinar was an opportunity to:
- Thank participants for their contribution to date,
- Showcase how participant data has contributed to key research findings, and
- Provide an opportunity to discuss anticipated next steps for the SIREN study
To watch the full webinar please follow this link. We have also created summary videos of the key webinar sections below:
 |
|
We were delighted to be joined by Professor Susan Hopkins, who thanked all participants and research teams for their contribution and highlighted SIREN's impact to date.
Watch the video here.
|
The webinar will be shared in the participant newsletter going out today, but please feel free to share this thank you message with your participants directly.
|
Next we heard from Sarah Foulkes, SIREN Principal Scientist, who highlighted the key role SIREN data has played in national surveillance.
Watch the video here and read the recent SIREN paper Sarah refers to by following this link.
|
|
 |
 |
|
Professor Alex Richter joined us to share more about the VIBRANT study, a SIREN Consortium partner. VIBRANT is aiming to to identify risk factors for COVID-19 infection following vaccination, and SIREN data has contributed to this valuable area of research. Watch the video here. |
|
Finally we heard from SIREN Study Lead, Victoria Hall, who provided an update on anticipated next steps (including the pause in active testing) and the value of continuing SIREN in the future.
Watch the video here.
|
|
 |
 |
|
Many thanks to everyone who attended a recent focus group as part of the Qualitative Research sub-study. Six out of eight focus groups are now complete. Thank you to everyone who attended or shared the registration link - we have heard from participants, site research teams and the wider workforce. |
Operational reminders
As mentioned via email, we are changing the biobank location from SEU Manchester to Porton. While we are still working on details for the biobank relocation, please be aware of the following: |
|
 |
- The last date for shipping samples to SEU Manchester is today, 24 March 2023.
-
After this date, please do not send sera samples to SEU. After this date, please keep any remaining serum samples at your laboratory until we confirm the Porton address details.
-
We will communicate the date to start shipping serum samples to Porton shortly. Please do not send any samples to Porton until you receive confirmation of the date and shipping address from SIREN.
-
Please continue to bleed your participants up until 31 March 2023, but for any samples taken after 24 March please store these until we can confirm the new Porton address.
Please share this message widely within your local teams, to ensure it reaches the relevant people responsible for shipping serum samples to us.
- If you have used Cepheid/Roche and not yet submitted your invoices you will have received a reminder email by 20 March 2023. Please email us if you need this re-sent.
- We are pleased to have confirmed accruals for England sites. To submit your accruals, please visit the NIHR portal page.
 |
|
Thank you to all sites who filled out the Dashboards survey, we really appreciate it. We will use this to make improvements to the Dashboards to make them as useful a tool as possible.
If you'd still like to respond, the feedback form can be found here.
|
Bonus items
Showcasing the SIREN PIP
 |
|
The Health Research Authority (HRA) recently celebrated the one year anniversary of the shared commitment to public involvement in health and social care research, which is co-signed with 12 other leading organisations.
They asked SIREN to share our experience of running the Participant Involvement Panel (PIP) and how it has impacted the study.
|
Read Anna's blog on the topic here.
The SIREN Consortium is a unique, multidisciplinary collaboration established to answer key questions about the mechanisms and durability of COVID-19 immunity.
Consortium members include:
Each SIREN Consortium member focuses on its own particular research area. To provide more insight into the Consortium and some of the people behind the research, we asked representatives from different organisations to share a bit about themselves and their work with SIREN.
Please click the videos below to watch.
And finally, as ever, if you would like to share feedback on the SIREN study (whether to flag what is working well or what you are finding challenging) please fill out our feedback form. There is the option to provide your feedback anonymously if you would prefer.
Kind regards,
The UKHSA SIREN Study Team
|
