Today marks International Clinical Trials Day, an annual event celebrated worldwide to raise awareness of the vital role clinical research plays in improving health outcomes — and to recognise the contributions of those involved in it from participants to clinicians and beyond.

What better way for the UKCRC Registered Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) Network to celebrate this important day than by announcing the launch of its new five-year strategy, setting the direction for clinical trials excellence through to 2030.

This forward-looking plan highlights the Network’s ambition to become an internationally recognised leader in the design, delivery, and analysis of high-quality trials that benefit both patients and the broader population. It also reaffirms its commitment to collaboration across health and social care, ensuring that trials remain patient-focused and methodologically sound. Read what our Network Director, Professor Kerry Hood, has to say about our vision for the future here.

Want to learn more about the global celebration of International Clinical Trials Day or find ways to participate? Visit the ACRP Clinical Trials Day website for information on events and initiatives.

If you’re curious about how to take part in a clinical trial yourself, explore the Be Part of Research platform to discover opportunities near you.

Network Director, Professor Kerry Hood, talks about the launch of the new five-year strategy taking the Network through to 2030. 

This is slightly different to our previous strategies – we have centred our values and clarified our value proposition as a network of highly experienced and innovative clinical trials units (CTUs). For me, as the new Network Director, having a clear set of values was important for the Network as everything we achieve is based on how we come together and create new ways of thinking, a common understanding, and the research culture of the future. How we then treat each other, and the broader communities we work with, is essential and reflects our commitments to respect and inclusion.  These will then drive a vibrant network in which we are able to challenge perceived wisdom and standards and support each other to move forward with new ways of doing things. Whilst these have been an integral part of our strategy development, I hope they will stand as the values of this network well past 2030 and continue to be a touchstone for our future.

But what are we actually going to be doing over the next five years? The field of clinical trials is rapidly moving, with major changes and developments in infrastructure across the UK.  For us, this means we need to focus on our collective approach to improving quality, efficiency and diversity in trials themselves, but also how we approach this in our governance, ways of working, and our workforce.  Sharing best practice and championing new approaches with sponsors and regulators is vital to see thorough uptake of new approaches.

We will continue to represent our member CTUs at a strategic and policy level and this has never been more important than now.  With a changing landscape for research globally, ensuring that academic trials that drive forward areas that are often not solved by industry have the infrastructure they need to deliver is vital.  We will also be exploring new ways of working in collaboration with industry to enhance the range of work undertaken and the ways in which it is done. However, an urgent priority for us is to ensure that the critical infrastructure provided by our members goes forward as a real strength of the research eco-system in the UK.  There are two ways in which we will address this – the first is to ensure we have a cohort of people coming through who can fill Director roles as people come up to retirement and the second is to develop our shared understanding of the best models to ensure sustainability of CTUs across a variety of types of host institutions (Universities, the NHS and Charities).

This strategy provides us with a focus to our activities and energy for the next five years, but also commits us to considerable effort to maintain and develop the health of this part of the research system which is internationally recognised as a driver of quality. As the person who sits in stewardship of this precious community of committed individuals and teams, I am enthused with what the next few years will bring and the direction this takes us.

You can learn more about the Network Strategy for 2025 – 2030 here.

Professor Kerry Hood
Director, UKCRC Registered CTU Network

Nurses are the foundation of patient care across the globe, and their vital contributions cannot be overstated.

In 1974, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) established 12 May—Florence Nightingale’s birthday—as International Nurses Day. The day was created to highlight the invaluable work nurses do for patients and to shed light on key issues facing the nursing profession.

Each year, the ICN chooses a theme to reflect current priorities in health care. Past themes have included strengthening health system resilience, advancing health through nursing research, and promoting access and equity. In 2025, they are focusing on the importance of supporting the health and wellbeing of nurses whether that be physical, mental, emotional, or ethical.

Nurses also play an essential role in clinical research, both in the UK and internationally. They are integral members of interdisciplinary trial teams, supporting participants, contributing their own research ideas, and helping educate peers and the wider community. Research nurses are key to the successful delivery of clinical studies and the ongoing improvement of patient care.

We are proud to stand with our nursing colleagues and to amplify their voices.

You can find out more about the ICN and this year’s campaign here: www.icn.ch/.