NIHR Newcastle Clinical Research Facility

The NIHR Newcastle Clinical Research Facility (NCRF) was established by the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NuTH) and the Newcastle University (NU) Partnership in 2005 and has been designated as an NIHR CRF since 2007. The NCRF delivers a broad range of experimental medicine studies and early phase clinical trials.

NCRF has grown steadily with the integration of the Clinical Ageing Research Unit in 2012, the Dental Research Unit in 2018, and the Paediatric Research Unit in 2021.

We will expand our research portfolio and geographical reach including collaboration with Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW) to strengthen delivery of studies in Mental Health disorders and dementia.

NuTH is a top-performing Trust for the number of clinical trials opened with patient recruited in the last 10-years (top in 8) and recently celebrated the opening of the 10,000th clinical trial.

Following the accreditation of Newcastle Health Innovation Partners (NHIP) an Academic Health Science Centres in 2020, the NCRF plays a key role in delivering NHIP s ambition to be a world-leader in translational research that brings benefits to patients and society.

The NCRF provides a high-quality, patient-centric, flexible, responsive, forward-looking and innovative research infrastructure to deliver early phase and experimental medicine research that address the local, national and global unmet health needs.

We will achieve this through our state-of-the-art research units, effective operational and governance processes, highly-skilled and well-supported workforce with a “can-do” ethos, an environment that encourage innovation and synergistic partnerships with other research infrastructure and research-active clinicians.

Our key objectives are to: Increase and improve delivery of strategically important trials and trials in our key areas of strength through: Developing novel approaches (e.g. digital technology, remote visits, flexible opening hours) to improve access to research.

Attracting more industry trials by promoting our patient cohorts, expertise and co-located infrastructure Encouraging and supporting more NHS clinicians to undertake early phase/experimental medicine studies Encouraging skill and personal development, empowering innovation, creating attractive career pathways for all staff groups, promoting staff wellbeing and enabling flexible working where appropriate.

Linking with other regional and national infrastructure such as NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (NBRC), NHIP, North East and North Cumbria Clinical Research Network (NENC-CRN) and UKCRF network Strengthen patient and public involvement, engagement and participation (PPIEP) through Establishing a Patient and Public Advisory Board to existing NCRF governance structure to co-develop strategies and activities Broadening NCRF PPIEP membership to include young persons, other underserved population representation and widen geographical reach across the North East of England.

Working closely with relevant local and national infrastructure to maximise synergy and impact Strengthen our Equality, Diversity, Inclusivity (EDI) commitment across all NCRF activities, including To recruit a greater and more geographically diverse range of patients to trials, making research more accessible and inclusive To implement EDI principles in employment and development opportunities for our delivery workforce.

To work collaboratively and synergistically with local and national research infrastructure