Barts Health NHS Trust

Jenny Rivers

Through this article, Jenny Rivers highlights the UK’s efforts to enhance its clinical research environment post-pandemic. Rivers discusses the government’s investment in life sciences, including a £400 million public-private collaboration to boost research capacity, improve patient outcomes and foster innovation. The article emphasises three key areas for continued progress—promoting cross-sector leadership and career development in research, ensuring equitable access to clinical trials and reducing the carbon footprint of research.

The UK has ambitious plans to build capacity for research across the life sciences, backed by policy and significant investment from industry and the UK government. This will build critical mass, partnership and cross-sector collaboration, equipping the next generation of research leaders to continue translating research and innovation outcomes into real improvements in patient care.

In May 2023, the UK Government published the final report ‘Commercial Clinical Trials in the UK, the Lord O’Shaughnessy review,’ which included 27 recommendations for transforming the clinical trials environment in the UK and making it an attractive place for investment and collaboration across life sciences.

We’ve already seen huge improvements since then, particularly in the recovery of UK clinical trial activity post-pandemic and improvement and efficiency of clinical trial setup at our sites and across our regulatory landscape through significant investment in our ‘Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency’ (MHRA). However, we’re still seeing challenges with designing, delivering and embedding research and innovation across the UK healthcare system, with research often managed separately from clinical activity. It’s also significantly overshadowed by a variety of operational and financial pressures.

Programs to address this include systems approaches to research delivery. For example, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded Commercial Research Delivery Centres, along with more transparency of research income, to effectively build capacity for research delivery. We’ve recently seen the launch of the world’s first public-private collaboration to take forward some of these programs, with up to £400 million invested into UK R&D over the next five years. Significantly, this signals the new UK government’s collaboration with industry, with shared confidence in life science research and innovation to drive the adoption of new treatments and technologies for the benefit of patients, and crucially is aligned to wider transformation programs across the UK healthcare system, for example, to address NHS waiting lists.

To ensure success and make the most of these opportunities, I highlight three areas to improve cross-sector collaboration within life sciences and enhance the UK’s global competitiveness, building on our exceptional track record in biomedical research:

Leadership

Cross-sector leadership, promoting accountability within healthcare for research delivery and active support for inclusive, multi-professional research career development within services is vital. We know that patients treated in research-active hospitals have better outcomes, regardless of their involvement in clinical research and collaboration between industry and the UK government, with engagement across the healthcare system and with academia is needed to raise the profile and drive greater ownership of research within organisations.

The number of clinical academic roles in the UK is in a worrying decline, particularly in out-of-hospital settings and in non-medical professions and staff need time and opportunity to engage. We must continue to promote research and innovation at the heart of everything we do in healthcare, allowing all involved to pursue their curiosity and desire to translate knowledge into better patient care. This goes beyond the traditional academic pathway, with cross-sector career opportunities also being fundamental to realise our ambitious plans for growth in the UK.

Inclusion

We know that often, patients in areas with the highest disease burden have the lowest numbers of research participants and that to address health priorities and inequalities while generating meaningful outcomes and data applicable to those living with conditions the research seeks to address, we need to provide more equitable access to clinical research. It is reassuring that the UK’s investment in infrastructure to ensure patients have greater access to commercial clinical trials has an increasing emphasis on research in out-of-hospital settings, residential and primary care for example. However, we also need more engagement, collaboration and shared accountability with commercial partners to engage a more diverse range of public contributors and patients at an earlier stage and in a more inclusive manner, including in pre-clinical research, with investment in establishing lasting, meaningful and trusted relationships with researchers and research sponsors.

Environmental sustainability

The impact of climate change on human health is clear and the life sciences sector must play its part in tackling this crisis. Research and innovation will contribute a substantial—around 15 percent—part of the pathway to Net Zero in the NHS. Still, we must also lead by example in reducing carbon emissions from research delivery, working with our industry partners, research funders and regulators to quantify and reduce the carbon footprint of research, without compromising quality or integrity. The UK government announced that 20% of the £400 million funding will support sustainable manufacturing through solutions to improve efficiency and reduce waste. Still, we need to take this further and apply these principles across our healthcare system as an opportunity to embed research and innovation and to reduce health inequality across the globe.

Clinical research in the UK has recovered well post-pandemic, building on our existing strengths in knowledge generation, health data and digital infrastructure, and healthcare delivery in the NHS and beyond. We now have an opportunity to build substantial capacity in the UK to maintain a globally competitive position for life sciences. Along with financial and resource investment, this will require effective collaboration, trusted cross-sector relationships and the promotion of a culture of curiosity across clinical care delivery.