Reflections from the Research and Development Forum 2026

“On the Monday, I talked about the work of the HRA in the ‘national updates’ session, along with speakers from the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). I covered what we’ve done against our 3 priorities that our Chief Executive, Matt Westmore, presented at the Forum the previous year; reducing the timeline for study set-up, working with our sector partners; implementing the new clinical trials regulations with MHRA; and our Research Systems programme. I also talked about the strategic outcomes that are particularly relevant for planning and delivering research from our new strategy, emphasising how we want to work with people across the sector so that our research system makes it easy to do research that people can trust.

“It was also great to present the following day alongside partners from NIHR, NHS England and the Commercial Research Delivery Centre (CRDC) Network about a cross-sector group that we convened for better collaboration and co-ordination of activities to enhance inclusion for representative clinical research.

“It was an interactive session where we got audience feedback that would help us shape actions against known barriers to inclusive research. The conference gave us an opportunity to let people know about the full range of work that the HRA is doing and reinforce the key role we play in the sector to make good research happen. It also gave me the chance to talk to people managing and delivering research on the ground, celebrate their successes and hear about their pain points.

"I did a presentation for the closing session about how the choices made by those who carry out research can have a big impact on trust in research, and as a result, the diversity of people who take part.

“We started with some hard facts about the scale of health inequalities in the UK, leading into what we at the HRA are doing to address this, with our role in the health and social care research system. This, crucially, is about supporting researchers to be inclusive in their research design, and to build in high quality, meaningful public involvement – so that people feel like research is done WITH them, not TO them.

“There was a great energy in the room, and we had some really valuable discussions afterwards. I noticed a huge change in the stories from my first forum in 2023. People weren’t just talking about the need for inclusion or revisiting the sad statistics about how research has excluded so many people in the past.

“They were talking about what they had done to include the people often forgotten, overlooked and ignored, people who don’t fit ‘standard’ inclusion criteria. It gave me hope that inclusion is possible, and it’s happening, despite the current political climate in the UK. There is so much support out there for researchers, and if you’re reading this wondering where to start, have a look at our public involvement resources.

“RDF comes but once a year, a time to catch up with friends and peers from across the UK share laughs and see the incredible work that takes place in the community. I always get an overwhelming sense of the passion for improving the lives of patients through research; it’s the buzz that fills the room.

“I joined forces with Laura Bousfield from NIHR to show how we will connect the processes for health and social care research in the UK. It was fantastic to have the opportunity to demonstrate elements of the new Plan and manage health and care research service to sponsors and the research community. User feedback on the new service is vital. You can get involved in the development of our new services by signing up for our newsletter.