NIHR St George's CRF

Through much of the pandemic our CRF ranked first nationally for the number of Covid-19 studies and we will build on this.

We propose a leading Infection and Vaccine focused CRF with the experience and expertise to: Extend our experimental and early phase research into our other areas of established strength Grow our research output with resilience to respond to future urgent national priorities We will do this by developing a skilled and diverse workforce and collaborating with patients, public, funders and commercial partners.

The CRF was established in 2011 and is located on the joint St George s University Hospitals (SGUH) and St George s University of London (SGUL) campus to provide specialist infrastructure for sponsored and hosted translational research and clinical trials.

Expanding from three research nurses to 55 whole time equivalent delivery staff members today, there has been a corresponding increase in all phases of trial activity.

The Vaccine Institute (VI) was established in 1996 within SGUL to run trials of paediatric and adult vaccines against infectious diseases, including phase I studies in human volunteers and is part of the National Immunisation Schedule Evaluation Consortium (NISEC).

Now located within the SGUH CRF, processes and standard operating procedures have been aligned, to function as a single research delivery entity.

The joint facility was a recruitment site for the phase I Oxford/Astra Zeneca and Imperial sa-RNA vaccine studies and the national coordinating site for the Novavax and Preg-CoV vaccine trials. During the pandemic we expanded to accommodate urgent COVID research.

Funded solely through CRN support, commercial and grant income our ability to further grow early phase research is limited. Core funding would enable us to realise the following objectives: 1.

To be a national asset in the ongoing response to COVID and other infectious diseases and to strengthen our ability to respond rapidly to future urgent national health priorities. 2.

To extend our world leading expertise in Vaccines and Infection to deliver early phase research in other established areas of clinical academic strength, particularly where later phase clinical research is flourishing. 3.

To capitalise on the unique partnership and co-location with SGUL, the UK s specialist health university, to develop our workforce at all levels, from leading and designing research, through skilled delivery of studies to increased staff awareness of the importance of research as core NHS business. 4.

To advance training on equality and engagement, foster a culturally aware and inclusive workforce and develop research careers in under-represented disciplines. 5.

To capitalise on our strategic partnerships and collaborations with industry (from SMEs to large pharma), the NIHR, our clinical networks in SW London and local community groups to deliver more early phase clinical trials in this large, underserved London region, including special groups such as pregnant women, and children, who are often not well studied in research centres. 6.

To put patient and public involvement, engagement and participation at the centre of all we do, embedding diversity and inclusion in all stages of our clinical trials from design to implementation.