On Wednesday 16 July the government published the Life Sciences Sector Plan.
The plan complements the previously announced Industrial Strategy and the 10 Year Health Plan to set out how the government will transform the UK’s economy and health.
Our Chief Executive, Matt Westmore, gave his thoughts on the publication of the plan and what it means for the HRA:
Matt Westmore, Chief Executive"The Life Sciences Sector Plan outlines an exciting vision for the UK to be the leading life sciences economy in Europe and the third most important Life Sciences economy globally.
"The plan identifies the many strengths of life sciences sector in the UK, and where change is needed to speed up the journey from discovery to delivery in clinical research.
"The Health Research Authority makes it easier to do research that people can trust, supporting the UK government’s health and growth missions.
"Our focus on being a trusted and effective organisation, that makes it simple and fast to do research well, will help achieve the ambitions set out in this plan.
"We are part of UK Clinical Research Delivery (UKCRD), a partnership programme which is co-ordinating work to substantially reduce the time taken to set up and start a commercial clinical trial. It aims to reduce the time taken to recruit the first participant into a clinical trial to fewer than 150 days by March 2026.
"The HRA is contributing to the programme by making changes to standardise contracts, streamline the approvals process and remove duplication across the research system. This will reduce the burden, cost and time to do research that people can trust.
“The approvals we provide are part of the research set up process, and we have been focusing on making sure our timelines are fast. In the first quarter of 2025-26, Research Ethics Committees in the UK completed their reviews on research applications in a median of 28 days.
“We are also updating our digital services to make it faster and easier to plan, approve, set up, manage and complete research in the UK.
“Updating these digital services will make it easier to share information about research with our partners across the system, and will support the government’s ambition for the development of a comprehensive database for clinical trials in the UK, and real time data on clinical trials.
“Throughout the Life Sciences Sector Plan we can see that artificial intelligence (AI) will play a key role in transforming health and social care research.
"Research using patient data to develop AI technology will need to be done in a way that people can trust. The HRA will continue to play a key role in setting standards that people can trust."