NIHR UCLH CRF

Our CRF is at the heart of the outstanding research partnership between world-leading University College London-UCL (ranked 8th globally) and one of the UK s leading NHS hospitals, University College London Hospitals-UCLH (ranked number 2 in the UK, and top 50 globally).

Our NIHR UCLH CRF is the central hub for delivery of novel treatments to human beings for the first time, as well as early phase clinical trials, allied to our NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre-BRC (one of the largest in the UK, with one of the biggest early phase trial portfolios in Europe).

Since inception in 2009, the UCLH-CRF has gone from strength to strength, delivering some of the most complex and innovative clinical trials, recruiting almost 4,500 volunteers for >350 ground-breaking clinical studies since 2017, benefiting patients with some of the most challenging, severe and incurable diseases.

Importantly, because UCLH hosts many nationally commissioned specialist NHS services, our research extends beyond our immediate vicinity, extending our reach to patients across the UK.

Core to our ambition, is a drive to improve diversity of research volunteers to ensure our trials represent the patients served by the whole NHS.

Comprising three sites, i) Bloomsbury site; UCLH Campus location, focussed on medical specialties, with one of the largest NHS portfolios of early-phase cancer trials, representing 23% of all phase-I cancer trials opened at NHS hospitals with NIHR CRFs; ii) the Queen Square site at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and UCL, a global excellence centre for neurology research (ranked 1st in the UK, 2nd in the world); the UK s first dedicated neurology CRF, to fast-track translational research and new treatments for neurological diseases such as Parkinson s disease, dementia, multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease; and iii) the recently opened UCLH Vaccine Trial Centre, an agile response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with fast-track implementation of multiple Urgent Public Health vaccine trials of major importance for NHS-England and the Department of Health and Social Care (including the landmark Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine trial), positioning UCLH as one of the leading NHS clinical research hubs in the UK for Covid-19 vaccine trial delivery, with commendation from the Government Chief Scientific Adviser and the Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce.

We have one of the most advanced electronic health record systems Epic, and UCLH globally pioneered the advanced deployment of the Epic-research module, with significant CRF contribution, to aid the digital transformation of clinical trials in the NHS. The next 5-years, will see further acceleration of evaluation of novel treatments in areas of greatest need.

Our portfolio of clinical trials will expand even further (having almost doubled between 2017-2021), in priority areas, benefiting from the world-class discovery science flowing from UCL, our BRC and our research council, charity, pharma and biotech industrial partners, all allied to areas of clinical strength and patient need, including; neurology, cancer, obesity, mental health, endocrinology, infections, lung/respiratory and rare diseases, vaccine development and proton beam radiotherapy (UCLH is one of only two NHS proton beam centres in the UK).