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Home > Partners and Industry > NIHR Support for Industry > Explore our services and support for the life sciences industry > Study set-up support

Streamline your study set-up and monitor progress

Study set-up comprises a number of different activities involving multiple organisations. When you have  study-wide regulatory and ethical approvals in place, and completed costing and contracting with sites, we can provide free support to help commercial sponsors:  

  • coordinate start-up activities across multiple NHS sites 
  • regularly assess study progress at UK sites

Help to coordinate start-up activities across multiple sites

The NHS is made up of separate organisations across the UK. Each NHS organisation will be responsible for setting up and opening your study at your selected sites. They will work directly with you, or your delegate, as the study sponsor.

We understand how important it is to open sites quickly and commence recruitment. We can support study start-up by using our national network structure to enable your selected sites to collaborate.

We will provide the mechanism for your sites to share their insights and solutions to overcome potential obstacles and challenges during study start-up and delivery. We like to think of it as a ‘do once and share’ approach to enable study sites to open quickly and efficiently.

Benefits of using this service:

  • Efficient: optimises productivity, minimises resource requirements
  • Collaborative: enables sites to proactively share and receive relevant information
  • Proactive: enables sites to anticipate and address challenges
  • Free: all our Study Support Services are free .Learn why this support is free

Get started: Schedule your study start-up call

For each participating site you will have a contact in the local Clinical Research Networks (CRN) or devolved administration equivalent. Your lead CRN - the region where your Chief Investigator is based - will arrange a study-wide start-up call. The purpose of this call is to initiate the conversation with all your sites. The agenda will be tailored to your study and the outcomes will be shared with all your study sites.

Your study start-up call details (usually a video call) will be emailed when you have your approvals in place. 

To access and optimise this support simply accept your start-up call invitation and share with relevant colleagues.

Help to monitor study progress: The Sponsor Engagement Tool

Visibility of real-time research activity data helps us to understand and optimise all the capacity in the health research system to deliver research quickly and efficiently. To achieve a complete view of all the research taking place, it is crucial that we receive accurate data on study progress from all sponsors.

Our Sponsor Engagement Tool enables sponsors (and their delegates) to provide regular assessments of study progress and ensure the data we hold is up-to-date. If your study appears to be behind schedule, we will seek to understand why. Sponsors delivering research in the UK are expected to use this tool while receiving research delivery support from the NIHR.

View a 7 minute video about the Sponsor Engagement Tool.

Benefits of using this tool

How to access the Sponsor Engagement Tool

When you have your approvals in place and your study is live you will receive an automated system email granting access to the Sponsor Engagement Tool.

If you have used NIHR services or tools before (NIHR Learn, CPMS or Open Data Platform) you can use the same account details to log in. If you do not have an account you will be taken to our Identity Gateway to set one up. Once logged in you will see a list of studies associated with the organisation that you represent.

A user guide, FAQs and other supporting materials are available on the NIHR Learn in the Sponsor Engagement Tool section. If you have problems logging in or registering email: supportmystudy@nihr.ac.uk

Coming soon: ‘On request' study performance service

Work is underway to create a new ‘on request’ study performance service. Sign up to the NIHR Industry newsletter to receive updates as our services evolve.

What happens if I decide not to use the support described here?

The support and activities described on this page will help you to ensure your study is delivered within planned timescales.

The studies we support must have clear value to the NHS, as explained in our Eligibility Criteria. Studies that are not progressing can have a negative impact on NHS capacity to deliver other research. This could result in NIHR support being withdrawn and reallocated elsewhere to ensure the flow of research participation opportunities to patients is maintained.

Our Sponsor Engagement Tool is part of the new measures (.PDF) that have been introduced to help us to work collaboratively with sponsors to keep your research on track.

Explore more support from the NIHR

This service is just one of the ways we help life science organisations. Visit our NIHR support for industry page to discover our full range of support or explore all our services and support.

Further information: The NIHR Study Support Service

The support described here is part of the NIHR Study Support Service - a specific set of these tools and services to help you plan, place and deliver research. This helpful 10-step user guide for our Study Support Service explains how to access the right support, at the right time.

Our Life Sciences Industry Learning Centre contains resources that will help you to understand and optimise support available via the NIHR Study Support Service. Log in to NIHR Learn with your existing Central Portfolio Management System (CPMS) details, or create a CPMS account.

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Contact the Industry team

For assistance relating to a specific site or study that is already underway, you can contact your local or lead site support team.