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Welcome to HRA Latest, with news and updates for everyone working or involved in health and social care research.
This month, we're very pleased to share our new strategy for 2025-28, which sets out our priorities for the next 3 years. This shows how our work will support the UK government's health and growth missions, in line with the 10 Year Health Plan and the Life Sciences Sector Plan, which were published earlier this month. Read on for our full response.
Also in this edition we're delighted to confirm Neelam Patel as our new Chair, and we share our annual report and accounts for 2024-25 and business plan for this financial year.
We also have an opportunity to feed back on our draft guidance for the new clinical trials regulations, as well as an interview with Research Ethics Committee (REC) member Tobiasz Trawinski. He shares insights on his first few months in the service and some advice for research applicants.
As always thank you for reading HRA Latest.
Matt Westmore
Chief Executive
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 Our new strategy for 2025-28
We launched our new strategy, Boosting research that improves health and grows the economy, earlier this month. It sets out our focus for the next 3 years to support our mission to make it easier to do research that people can trust.
The strategy was developed with our staff, community of volunteers, public contributors and partners from across the health and social care research sector. It defines 3 strategic objectives that will shape our activity in support of the UK government's objectives for health and growth:
- supporting UK growth in life sciences
- helping reduce health inequalities
- increasing the impact of money invested in research
It also sets outcomes that we will work to achieve over the next 3 years to be a trusted, effective organisation that makes it simple and fast to do research well.
 Neelam Patel appointed as our new Chair
We’re pleased to confirm that Neelam Patel is the new, permanent Chair of the HRA.
Neelam has been serving as Interim Chair since February 2025 when Professor Sir Terence Stephenson stood down from the role to take up a new role as Chair of NHS Providers.
She will serve a 3 year term as Chair which began on Monday 7 July 2025.
 Interview: how being a REC member works alongside my career
Our Research Ethics Committees (RECs) review applications for health and social care research before it can be approved to go ahead. They play a crucial role in upholding the dignity and safety of research participants. We are lucky to have almost 900 REC members across the UK who volunteer their time to provide this service.
We interviewed expert member Dr Tobiasz Trawinski, a Senior Lecturer at Liverpool Hope University, to hear how his first few months as part of a REC have been and understand how his committee role complements his career.
 Our response to the Life Sciences Sector Plan
On Wednesday 16 July the government published the Life Sciences Sector Plan.
The plan complements the previously announced Industrial Strategy and the 10 Year Health Plan to set out how the government will transform the UK’s economy and health.
Our Chief Executive, Matt Westmore, explains what the plan means for the HRA.
 An update on PATHWAYS
Earlier on today King’s College London announced that the PATHWAYS Horizon study has received ethics and regulatory approval.
PATHWAYS is a programme of research that aims to find out how the NHS can best support children and young people with gender incongruence. PATHWAYS Horizon is a longitudinal observational study that is the first in this programme of research.
An application for this study was received earlier this year and was reviewed by a Research Ethics Committee. The study has been given a favourable opinion, which will allow the research team to set up and begin the study.
 Annual report and business plan published
We recently published our annual report and accounts 2024-25, which reflects on our performance in the last financial year. It reports on our key performance indicators, including the time it takes for us to review and approve applications for health and social care research.
Our new business plan 2025-26 sets out our planned activity for the next 12 months, showing how we will work to achieve the strategic objectives detailed in our new strategy.
 Share your feedback on our new clinical trials guidance
Last month, we published new guidance to accompany the updated clinical trials regulations which come into force on 28 April 2026.
The guidance explains what will change in terms of processes, legal requirements, and expectations for anyone involved in setting up or delivering clinical trials.
We’re now inviting feedback on the guidance. If you have any comments, please complete our online survey by 5pm on Wednesday 10 September 2025.
Thank you to everyone who has already submitted feedback.
We’ll use the feedback we receive to update the final guidance which we plan to publish this autumn.
 Share your feedback on HRA Latest
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If there’s anything you would like to hear about in future updates, please let us know by emailing communications@hra.nhs.uk
News from across UK research
Below are some updates you may have missed about health and social care research in the UK:
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