HRA Latest December 2022 - help us improve clinical research; we respond to a WHO consultation; another organisation joins our public involvement pledge and more

Health Research Authority sent this bulletin at 15-12-2022 01:03 PM GMT

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HRA Latest - December 2022

Professor Matt Westmore, next Chief Executive of the HRA

Welcome to HRA Latest with news and updates for those working or involved in health and social care research. 

This is the final HRA Latest of 2022. It’s been another great year for the HRA and I’m very thankful to everyone who helped make it a success.

This month, we’re asking for your help to improve clinical research by making sure it always puts people first.

I’ve also written an update on our plans to make sure ethics is always at the heart of health and social care research.

You can read our response to a World Health Organization consultation on how to improve clinical trials, and we’re delighted another organisation has joined our Shared Commitment to public involvement in health and social care research.

As always, for regular updates and the latest news, you can follow us on Twitter @HRA_Latest. 

Matt Westmore, Chief Executive 

A clinician injecting the arm of a man with his sleeve rolled up

Help us improve clinical research

We’ve been working in partnership with the public, the research community and the University of Lincoln to find out how we can improve the way clinical research happens, so that more people can take part.

As part of our People-Centred Clinical Research project, this group has created six hallmarks that we think research will have when it has people at the centre of its design and conduct.

We want to know what you think and are asking for your views and experiences in our online survey.

Read more

Think Ethics: a year in review

2022 has been a busy year for Think Ethics, our work to make research ethics review even more innovative and efficient, and to put people and ethics at the heart of everything we do.

Over the past 12 months we’ve been having conversations with the public and the wider research community to find out how we can improve the way we, and others, work.

As the year draws to a close, our Chief Executive, Matt Westmore has written about the ideas we’ve developed so far and how we plan to implement them in 2023.

Read Matt's blog

HRA responds to WHO clinical trials consultation

We’ve responded to a World Health Organization consultation on improving clinical trials.

The consultation aims to find new ways to improve and strengthen clinical trials carried out across the world.

In our response, we highlight the wide-ranging work we’ve been doing to support clinical trials in the UK.

Read our response

A group of cartoon people on a white background in different colours

Research network joins Shared Commitment

Leading research network Cochrane has joined the Shared Commitment to Public Involvement in health and social care research.

The Shared Commitment aims to improve the quality of public involvement across the sector. It builds on work led by the HRA and was developed with other health and social care bodies and members of the public.

Read more

Christmas opening hours

Our opening hours are changing over Christmas and New Year. If you need help during that time, a list of dates and times when our services will be available is on our website.

All of our services will be open as normal from Tuesday 3 January 2023.

Find out more

News from across UK research

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has launched a public consultation on how medicines and medical devices safety information is communicated to healthcare professionals

The National Data Guardian has launched new guidance to help organisations carry out better public benefit evaluations when they are planning to use, or allow access to, data collected to plan and improve services or carry out research

The Ada Lovelace Institute, the University of Exeter’s Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, and the Alan Turing Institute, have published a report which explores the role academic and corporate research ethics committees (RECs) play in evaluating artificial intelligence (AI) and data science research for ethical issues. The report also investigates the common challenges they face. The HRA have recognised these issues and are actively seeking to develop training and guidance material for NHS RECs so that they are better informed and prepared for the ethical challenges associated with AI and data science research projects

HRA Now sends you everything you need to know where there are changes to the way we work

Here are some recent updates you may have missed from HRA Now.

New IRAS user guide for CTIMPs - we’ve developed a new IRAS user guide to help you find the information you need more easily when you’re using the system. It presents the same information as the current step by step guide on the HRA website, but it’s in a different format and structure.

Updated UK model non-commercial agreement - an updated model non-commercial agreement (mNCA) is now available for you to use. A full description of the changes is available in the mNCA guidance in IRAS Help.

New commercial hub and spoke agreement - following on from the publication of the May 2022 model clinical trial agreement (mCTA), and contract research organisation model clinical trial agreement (CRO-mCTA) a new commercial hub and spoke agreement has been published to support hub and spoke delivery models for commercial clinical trials.