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.
Whilst we're pleased this commitment has been achieved- our average has been just 29 days in the past year- it remains an area of continuous improvement.
Our work as part of the UK Clinical Research Delivery programme (UKCRD) has played a big role in reaching this target, and in our business plan we outline how we’ll continue to work with our partners such as the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on Combined Review applications timeline efficiency, as well as our volunteers who provide the ethics reviews, to optimise these timeframes.
Looking to the future, there is large scale change on the horizon; our business plan outlines how our new digital service, Plan and manage health and care research, will help support study set-up and approval speed.
We will be reducing the burden on users by improving end-to-end flow and replacing manual processes, including delivering 2 core platform services by 2027.
We’ve already introduced some early users, who are testing it to submit and approve modifications to eligible study types, and we’re excited to share more on this as its capabilities and functionalities develop. It’s a huge system-wide undertaking, that will transform the shape and speed of approvals for years to come and require close collaboration across the research system, with users, industry and other regulators all involved.
Trusted
We need to be trusted by everyone who needs us, and the first logical step to this is understanding them better.
In our business plan, we describe how we want to make sure that people can understand, value and trust us and the way that we work. Our measurable outcomes include people telling us that they feel that they had shaped and informed the work they had been involved in, and increasing the diversity of perspectives that inform our work.
We’ve been working with a research agency on a project to understand our key stakeholders and audiences, which is helping us to map out in detail what they need from us, and how we can use our resources to provide this. This will help us develop detailed ‘personas’ which will inform how we plan our communications and engagement for the next few years.
We’re also working closely with partners to gather demographic data on our audiences and are carrying out engagement with under-represented groups to help us take action to improve inclusion.
One great example of this is some targeted engagement we are doing with young people. They are helping us design a REC recruitment campaign to encourage under 30s to join our committees, after our most recent community survey told us only around 1% of REC members are under 30. Read more in our business plan on our 'trusted' strategic outcomes.
Effective
We need to be effective taking action to improve the research system and support our people well.
One key group is our community of more than 900 volunteers, and we wanted to make sure that they can see the difference they make and have a positive experience as a valued member. We want to make sure they're happy with their experience of working with us a and we measure satisfaction rates in our community survey. In our strategy we set a target of 80%, which we exceeded in our most recent 2026 survey.
The business plan also describes how we will plan strategic communications and engagement to support our community through some big changes, including the recent introduction of the new clinical trials regulations in April.
We also know that AI will play a key role in our effectiveness in the future, so in our business plan, we also explain how we will use AI well.
We set ourselves a target to find ways to use AI to improve the way we work and our services, in a way that people can trust. Internally, we’ve introduced Copilot for staff, and at a system level, we’ve just published our plan to enable safe AI powered innovation in health and social care research. Read more about this in our news story.
Read our business plan
The business plan for 2026-27 on our website.