Using the report above, you can find out more about our performance.
Why is our Research and Innovation performance important to us?
A key objective for the Government is to significantly increase the number of patients who are offered the opportunity to take part in research. This also helps to enhance the United Kingdom’s reputation as a world-leading location for conducting high-quality clinical and health research. Patient participation in research is essential for advancing medical knowledge and improving healthcare outcomes. It also ensures that research findings are relevant and beneficial to the populations served by the NHS. By encouraging more patients to become involved in research, the Government aims to promote innovation. In addition, research helps to accelerate the development of new treatments, ensuring that the UK remains competitive. We track our research performance to find out how well we are meeting these aims. We share it on our website so that patients and the public can also learn more, if they’d like to.
NHS Trusts are expected to demonstrate measurable improvements in their capacity and efficiency when approving research studies. Equally important is the drive to improve recruitment performance across all NHS organisations. Recruiting participants efficiently and effectively is vital for ensuring that studies are completed on time. NHS Trusts are encouraged to build stronger research infrastructures, support clinical staff engagement, and actively promote research opportunities to patients.
By enhancing both approval and recruitment performance, the NHS can create a more responsive and research-active environment. This will attract greater investment from academic and commercial research partners. It will also ensure that patients across the country benefit from earlier access to cutting-edge treatments that improve health outcomes.