The UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) was established in 2004 with the aim of re-engineering the clinical research environment in the UK, to benefit the public and patients by improving national health and increasing national wealth.
The UKCRC Partnership brings together the major stakeholders that influence clinical research in the UK. It includes the main UK research funding bodies; academia; the NHS; regulatory bodies; the bioscience, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries; and patients.
The UKCRC represents a new way of working in which complex long-standing issues are tackled by key stakeholders working together. Strategic direction and oversight is provided by the UKCRC Board with broad stakeholder input into key issues. The Partnership is supported by a jointly funded, independent Secretariat and has a mixed model of working, where activities are:
- Led and administered by individual Partners on behalf of the Partnership
- Led by individual Partners and administered by the UKCRC Secretariat
- Led and administered by UKCRC Secretariat.
The UKCRC was established to address the challenge that conducting research in the UK was much harder than it needed to be, despite the NHS providing the perfect environment in which to carry out high quality research for the benefit of patients.