Local Clinical Research Networks
- Eastern

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Our study support servicesThis page contains information about the services offered by the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) Eastern to NHS staff, academia and other research stakeholders. These include our Study Support Service, our Life Sciences Industry service and our Workforce Development service.

Our Services

Patient and staff completing form

To help the delivery of research across East Anglia, we have teams of people dedicated to training and support. Our main current services are detailed below.

Study Support Service

For any study that is eligible or applying for Network support, we offer a range of services across the research pathway that will help study feasibility, set up and delivery to time and target.

The Study Support Service in the Eastern region provides support to all key NHS healthcare sectors: Acute, Mental Health, Community Health Services, Primary Care and includes independent providers of NHS services. Our model of support means that we are able to work flexibly across health sectors and patient pathways for different types of studies and disease areas and we can draw on the expertise of different NHS and Clinical Research Network staff as required.

If you have a query or want to make contact with our Study Support Service Team, the email address is studysupportservice.eastern@nihr.ac.uk.

Life Sciences Industry

In East Anglia we have access to a combined population of around 3.8 million. We have a strong history of collaboration with industry and are committed to the impact that clinical research can make to patient care. Our region offers first class research facilities and centres of excellence within leading teaching hospitals and collaboration with academia.

Our dedicated Industry team supports all commercial Portfolio research within the Eastern region throughout the study life cycle. The Industry team provides the following:

Strategic oversight of the activities of the CRN, nationally, regionally, and at site level to facilitate delivery of industry sponsored studies on the NIHR Portfolio
Engagement with regional SMEs to encourage engagement with the NHS to deliver research
Support sites in increasing their commercial portfolio and if required, provide one to one support for first commercial studies
Access to staff to support under-recruiting studies, and partner experienced and new staff to maintain high quality study delivery, whilst increasing research capacity
Single point of contact for study queries, feasibilities and support

You can get in touch with our Life Sciences Industry Team for more information by emailing crneastern.industry@nihr.ac.uk.

Workforce Development

Our Workforce Development Team work to promote research as an attractive career option within the NHS. Working with colleagues, we support a number of national initiatives and our dedicated learning and development team deliver a range of learning programmes locally to support the delivery of high quality clinical research across the Eastern region.

We aim to improve the standards of research delivery by:

Ensuring all delivery staff have the opportunity to connect and share best practice
Supporting the development of our future clinical research delivery leaders through the Advanced Leadership Programme
Identifying the learning needs of the workforce and providing a comprehensive programme of learning
Developing our Principal Investigator community and supporting trainees to get involved in clinical research
Providing delivery staff with support in workforce planning, recruitment, career pathways and professional development.

Training is freely available to all staff who contribute to NIHR Portfolio studies within the Eastern region. We also support local, regional and national initiatives which aim to develop our regional research workforce. This includes supporting the NIHR Clinical Research Practitioner Directory, 70@70 programme and Advanced Leadership Programme, and funding staff places on the UEA's annual Foundations of Clinical Research Masters module.

If you are working to deliver NIHR research in the region you can find more information and guidance to help you and your team on the CRN Eastern Hub Home.