Karen Williams, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Resources
We’ve published our business plan for 2026-27, which sets out the work that we will do for the next year to meet the objectives under each strategic outcome in our strategy.
We launched our strategy for 2025-28 last July, Boosting research that improves health and grows the economy. It sets out how we will work with partners across the health research system to contribute to a national mission; to make the UK the best place in the world to do clinical research.
Our strategy spells out our specific organisational objectives:
- supporting UK growth in life sciences
- helping reduce health inequalities
- increasing the impact of money invested
and how you will see us achieve these objectives, captured under 4 key ways in which you will see us behave- fast, trusted, simple and effective.
Our business plan acts as a manifesto for the future, spelling out how we will work to both achieve our objectives and contribute to the national agenda, with specific, measurable outcomes - and we are pleased to have already made headway in some high-profile areas of work.
Simple
We need to be simple for researchers to find out how to do research with and for everyone and access support to this well.
One way we measure this is via our user satisfaction survey, which looks at whether researchers have a positive experience when finding out about what they need to do and earning the approvals that they need.
We set a target for this audience to rate their experience with us at least 7 out of 10, and have exceeded this, with our average being 84% over the past year. We’ll continue to review this feedback to make sure we are always listening and adapting.
On wider system level, we want to make it simpler for people from a diverse range of backgrounds to take part in research that is relevant to them.
We’ve been working on guidance to support sponsors and researchers to develop an Inclusion and Diversity Plan, and have carried out a pilot with some organisations to get their initial feedback.
We’re reviewing the results and will adapt guidance using this input, to help meet the target set in our business plan to increase in the proportion of researchers who use an Inclusion and Diversity Plan and are more confident to include a diverse group of people in their research. Read more in our business plan about our 'simple' strategic outcomes.
Fast
We need to be fast to plan, approve, set up, manage and complete research in the UK.
The government also set out its ambitions in this area, with a national of target for the time it takes to get a clinical trial set up in the UK to be cut to 150 days by March 2026.
In terms of our approvals timelines to support this, we set a target in our strategy last year to provide approvals for 100% of clinical trials of investigational medicinal products (CTIMPS) within 60 days.
Excerpt from the official page. The original is authoritative. Continue reading at UK Health Research Authority ↗