NIHR Primary Care Commercial Research Delivery Centres (PC-CRDCs)

Funding to establish NIHR Primary Care Commercial Research Delivery Centres (PC-CRDCs) to increase commercial research capacity within primary care.

Established in 2006 and primarily funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funds health and care research in the UK.

The aim of the NIHR Primary Care Commercial Research Delivery Centres (PC-CRDCs) is to establish centres to focus on increasing commercial research capacity within primary care, thereby supporting the UK’s aim to be a global leader in commercial clinical research delivery. This initiative follows on from the Commercial Research Delivery Centre (CRDC) funding opportunity.

NIHR PC-CRDCs will serve as centres of excellence, focussing on boosting the commercial research delivery capacity in primary care organisations. They will accelerate the delivery of commercial clinical research for the benefit of the health and wealth of the nation. The centres will be part of the UK CRDC Network, collaborating with industry, NHS delivery partners, other research delivery infrastructure and wider stakeholders to increase the attractiveness of the UK as a desirable global destination to carry out commercial research.

By providing additional research capacity, these PC-CRDCs will:

• Accelerate the delivery of commercial clinical trials in primary care.
• Increase the capability of primary care to deliver commercial research.
• Act as an access point to a network of commercially active sites with gold standard set-up times and performance, standardised costing and contracting through sign up to the General Practice National Contract Value Review (NCVR), and a dedicated staff and facilities with consistency of practice.
• Act as hubs to support decentralisation and diversification of clinical trial delivery, leveraging relationships with local NHS organisations, their Integrated Care Systems and NIHR Infrastructure to make trial participation more accessible for people in primary care settings.
• Strengthen the UK’s position as an attractive site for innovative companies to conduct research.
• Help ensure research in primary care is more efficient, competitive and accessible aligned with the Government’s Health and Growth Missions and the forthcoming 10 Year Health Plan.
• Contribute to an increase in research inclusion to ensure people from all eligible communities and those living with the greatest burden of disease can participate in commercial clinical trials.
• Work collaboratively with all parts of the clinical research infrastructure, including but not limited to contract research organisation (CRO) sites, wider NIHR research delivery infrastructure and aligned organisations within the devolved nations. 
• Work to provide training to enhance skills and workforce development to build further capacity and expertise for the delivery of commercial contract research, including across local regions. 
• Support and contribute to a newly convened UK CRDC Network, working as a good collaborative partner across the NIHR CRDCs and equivalent centres in the devolved nations, as appropriate. There is an opportunity for PC-CRDCs to engage with primary care sites within the CRDC spokes, particularly those located in the immediate vicinity of the PC-CRDC host, fostering local collaboration and maximising impact.

The NIHR CRDC scheme provides infrastructure funding to undertake the delivery of industry sponsored research and commercial collaborative studies across the whole clinical trials pathway. The NIHR Clinical Research Facilities (CRFs) already support the delivery of early translational and experimental medicine studies across a range of clinical/disease areas. It is therefore anticipated that the CRDCs will focus on later phase trials (Phase IIb and later). However, PC-CRDCs may support a combination of early and late phase trials if applicants can demonstrate that the centre has the appropriate facilities and expertise in place.