We've published our annual report and accounts for 2023-24, which were formally laid before Parliament on Thursday 25 July. 

The report gives an overview of our performance and finances over the past 12 months and highlights our key achievements.  

We’ve published a report about the demographics of our HRA Community.  

The community – made up of members of our Research Ethics Committees, Confidentiality Advisory Group and Public Involvement Network – were asked to complete a diversity and inclusion survey.  

The results help build a picture of who our members are, help us understand who isn’t part of our community, and help us to take action so that our members better reflect the diversity of our society.

Over the past few months we've been meeting charities and patient representative organisations to find out about research issues that matter to people.

We met with representatives from Alzheimer’s Research UK and members of Huntington’s Disease Voice, an organisation hosted by the Huntington’s Disease Association. 

The conversations were invaluable and we will use them to inform how we can make a difference to improve people’s experiences of health and social care research.

We're committed to supporting sustainable practices in our daily business, as set out in our environmental strategy. We are also working to better understand what role we may play in encouraging sustainable research.

Sarah Grimshaw, Chair of our staff Green Team, blogs about attending a workshop on supporting sustainable research and highlights work already taking place at the HRA and elsewhere to encourage change.  

The HRA Green Team is a staff led network who assist the organisation in promoting and facilitating environmental sustainability.

Integrated Care Boards and the role of the CAG 

Dr Paul Mills, our Confidentiality Advice Service Manager, has written a blog about the Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG) building relationships with Integrated Care Systems. 

Earlier this year, Paul spoke to staff from Integrated Care Boards across the country about the use of confidential data and how the CAG fits into the information governance landscape. 

HRA at the Patient Engagement Open Forum 

Our Public Involvement Manager, Barbara Molony-Oates, joined experts from around the world at the Patient Engagement Open Forum in May. 

Barbara shared insights on the work we’re doing to improve diversity in research and discussed our Shared Commitment to Public Involvement. 

The event was held to champion and support patient engagement in the health and social care research sector. 

• Health and Care Research Wales and BioNTech have launched a collaboration which will help Welsh patients to access pioneering clinical trials for cancer treatments 

• the Association of Medical Research Charities has published a briefing on how charities are supporting the recruitment of patients to clinical studies
   
• the National Institute for Health and Care Research has shared a video to mark 30 years of its Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme 

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